Jean Longstaff has submitted the following:-

Born on 8th October 1888 in Stockton-on-Tees, David Bowen was the sixth of the eight children of Welsh bricklayer David Bowen and his Stockton born wife Elizabeth nee Callender. At the time of the 1901 census they were still living in the same house on Exeter Street, but the three oldest children, William, Thomas and Gertrude had left home; ten years later David had also left home and was living and working as a bricklayer in Eccles, Lancashire.

Leaving England for Canada in 1912 David found work as a builder and settled in Ontario, becoming a member of a local militia group. On 18th September 1914 he went to the newly opened camp at Valcartier and enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force and became Private 27998 of the 15th Battalion (48th Highlanders of Canada). A month later the battalion arrived in England and after initial training arrived in France on 15th February 1915 as part of the 3rd Infantry Brigade, 1st Canadian Division, where after only a month David was promoted to Sergeant. Billeted near Estaires and then in Ypres, by mid April and having completed a machine gunners course, David and his unit were in the trenches.

On 29th April 1915 the Battalion were near no.4 pontoon bridge on the Yser Canal under heavy shell fire and the war diary simply reads “a number of casualties”. The Circumstances of Casualty report into David’s death reads “this non commissioned officer was killed in action during the second battle of Ypres but no details are available in relation to the actual circumstance under which he meat his death”. On the reverse of the report it simply states “body not recovered for burial”.

Sergeant 27998 David Bowen is one of the many names listed on the Menin Gate, one of four memorials to the Commonwealth missing in Belgian Flanders which cover the area known as the Ypres Salient. In 2010 two new memorial plaques at St.Julien and Gravenstafel Ridge were dedicated to commemorate those members of the 15th Battalion (48th Highlanders of Canada) who fell during the 2nd Battle of Ypres 22-26 April 1915.

The three medals, 1914/15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal, for Sergeant Bowen were dispatched to his mother, still living in Exeter Street, Stockton-on-Tees in 1922.

David Bowen is remembered at Stockton on S138.12 and S138.18a which gives his regiment as the 58th Canadian Highlanders

In Canada he is remembered on their the Virtual War Memorial and Book of Remembrance.

Canadian book of Remembrance page 6
Canadian Virtual War Memorial
The CWGC entry for Sergeant Bowen