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Auction: 21003 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 226

Five: Major H. G. Bowyer, Somerset Light Infantry, who was wounded in South-East Asia whilst attached to the 1/18th Garhwal Rifles

1939-45 Star; Burma Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45; General Service 1918-62, 1 clasp, S. E. Asia 1945-56 (Major H. G. Bowyer. Som. L. I.), mounted as worn, good very fine (5)

Approximately 4 'S. E. Asia 1945-46' clasps issued to the Somerset Light Infantry.

Henry Gordon Bowyer was born on 23 November 1921 at Wokingham and was commissioned into the Somerset Light Infantry from the ranks of The Buffs on 11 February 1941. He served in Burma and South-East Asia attached to the 1/18th Garhwal Rifles and commanded 'A' Company. As recalled in The British Occupation of Sumatra:

'On the morning of 4 December, it was reported that the Brigade Major of 71st Indian Infantry Brigde and a woman Red Cross worker had failed to return from a trip to the beack at Emmahaven, the port of Padang...[5 December] On this day also, Major Bowyer went from the Battalion lines to an outlying location to investigate a report of shots being fired. On returning, an assailant fired one round at close range, wounding him in both arms. The other occupants of the jeep in which he was travelling returned fire but the man got away. Bowyer was taken to hospital.'

His comrades from 'A' Company burned the village from which the shots came as a reprisal the following day. It later transpired that in the area, Japanese grenades and bombs were being hidden and the bodies of the missing Major and the Red Cross worker were found, brutally stabbed to death and buried in shallow graves south of the swimming pool in Emmahaven. Bowyer died in South Somerset in September 2005; sold together with copied extracts.

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Sold for
£1,500

Starting price
£400