Bowlby, George Elliot Lowes
Lieutenant George Elliott Lowes Bowlby, 8th Lincolnshire Regiment, was the only son of the Rev. A. E. Bowlby, Vicar of St. James, Streatham. Born in 1891 at Meerut, India, where his father was then a missionary, he was educated at St. Paul's School. "Life was not easy to him when about nine he had an attack of meningitis, and it was only due to two lady doctors who attended him after being given up by a specialist, that he survived. For years he was not allowed to touch a book."
He entered into business, but gave largely of his leisure to social and religious work among boys at Camberwell and Streatham, and was a Sunday school teacher and server at St. Anselm's. He was looking forward with enthusiasm to ordination, and for this purpose had commenced his work in our Evening Classes. But the war came, and his call was to the front.
He was killed in action, in France, on March 15th. "As he had lived so he died - loved and respected by brother officers and men, and performing to the last acts of unselfish devotion."
Lieut. Bowlby's life was a fine example of the force of the inner sense of high things nothing but this could have sustained him against physical weakness; and as it were have brought a body which had been severely tried into efficiency for military life, with a prospect of full activity in the ministry of the Church had he been spared.
From camps at Doncaster and Lichfield as from the trenches in France word has flowed in, and we in College can only add our sense of a loss which a brief sojourn among us was sufficient to make us feel. A.C. King's College Review, June 1916
Biographical
| Surname(s) | Bowlby |
|---|---|
| First name(s) | George Elliot Lowes |
| Date of birth | 1891 |
| Place of birth | Meerut India |
| Family details | Son of Rev Alfred Elliott Bowlby & Lilian Bowlby of Harold House, Harold St, Dover. Father was Vicar of St James, Streatham |
| Previous education | St. Paul's School |
| College | King's College London and/or King's College London Hospital |
| Dept / course | Faculty of Theology - Evening Classes |
| Military unit | 8th Lincolnshire Regt. |
| War / conflict | World War One (1914-1918) |
| Date of death | 15 March 1916 |
| Age at death | 25 |
| Rank at death | Captain |
| Cause of death | Killed in action. |
| Burial place | Cite Bonjean Military Cemetery, Armentieres |
| Commemoration(s) | King's College Chapel |
| Notes | 1911 Census George was a bank clerk. |
| Sources | King's College London Archives; Commonwealth War Graves Commission; Soldiers Died in the Great War |
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