Sergeant Fred Bowler

Army Number: 200031 (formerly  Private 582)

Battalion: 1/5th Battalion Sherwood Foresters (Notts & Derbys) Regiment.

Awards: Military Medal. London Gazette 28th July 1917.

Born and lived at Belper, Derbyshire.  Son of James and Elizabeth Bowler, of Park Side, Belper, Husband of Elizabeth Ann Cotton (formerly Bowler), of High Street, Belper, Derbyshire.  He was a coal labourer prior to enlisting at Belper.  He went to France on 1st March 1915 and was killed in action, on 1st July 1916, aged 26, during the attack on the German positions at Gommecourt, France, on the first day of the Battle of the Somme. He was posthumously awarded the Military Medal London Gazette on 28th July 1917.

Commemorated: Thiepval Memorial, France. Pier and Face 10 C 10 D and 11 A.

Sergeant Fred Bowler is also commemorated on the following memorials:-
Belper War Memorial, Belper, Derbyshire.
St. John the Baptist Chapel Book of Remembrance (Heritage Centre), Belper, Derbyshire.