Sgt. Bowes was serving with 9 Sqdn. He was a crew member of Lancaster I W4265 WS-L which set off from Waddington on a mission to Genova. On the return to base, while preparing to land, the aircraft was in collision with another aircraft returning from the same mission. None from either aircraft survived.
Royal Air Force Bomber Command Losses of the Second World War: 1941; W.R. Chorley; 1994; Midland Counties Publication; ISBN 0 904597 89 X.
He is remembered at Darlington on D40.035