Sergeant Martin Orme Bowman
6th Battalion, Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry
Killed in Action
Date of Birth: 1889
Place of Birth: Teignmouth, Devon
Date of Death: 31 July 1915 aged 26
Buried: Remembered on Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Belgium
Awarded the 1914-15 Star, The British War Medal and the Victory Medal
Sergeant Martin Orme Bowman, age 26. Martin was born in Teignmouth 1889 (mother's maiden name was Nowell) and was shown on the 1891 census age 1 as a visitor in Cheltenham.
In 1901 he was shown as a boarding pupil at a school in Cheltenham. He obviously attended the South Western Polytechnic in Chelsea as he is named on their roll of honour.
Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantrycap badge
The 1911 census shows him as a boarder at Elderfield Road, St. John at Hackney, London where he was working as a colour chemist.
According to his army record Martin was living in Weston-Super-Mare when he enlisted at St. Paul's Churchyard, London with 6th Battalion, Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry Regiment, army service no. 12467. Previously listed as Lance Sergeant he had been promoted to Sergeant.
Martin was killed in action on 31 July 1915 at Hooge in Flanders, Belgium. Remembered on Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Belgium.
The 6th Battalion of the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry
The 6th Battalion landed at Boulogne in France on 22 May 1915.
German flame throwers in action on the Western Front. © IWM (Q 41844)
At the end of July 1915 the 6th were sent to hold the line at Hooge, where on the July 30, 1915, the Germans put their new weapon the flamethrower, to devastating use for the first time.
*The following is extracted from a letter that the adjutant wrote to his commanding officer, about the fight between the 6th Battalion of the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry and the Germans.
"At about 2 am next morning (30th July 1915) in the dark, the Germans tried to bomb us out of the two trenches leading from us to them (old communication trenches). The artillery on both sides opened rapid fire, the din was awful. The Germans then used liquid fire but fortunately failed to get any into the trenches. Our men were dropping in all directions...
About 18 men were killed and 180 wounded... We were in this woeful position all the following day - the 31st (July 1915) - and were crumped from three directions all the time. We had no food or water for forty-eight hours. That night ...we had a repetition of what I have described. ..At midnight we were relieved by the Yorkshires... Our casualities are 7 officers killed and wounded , 285 other ranks killed and wounded. This is made up of about 30 killled, 55 missing (many of wholm must be dead) and some 200 wounded."
This is what his battalion experienced on the day that Martin Orme Bowman of Teignmouth died.
*Extract from "The History of the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry, 1914-1919", 1932, E. Wyrall pages 134/135
