Tragic last picture for Shropshire war sweethearts

He was Ernest Pryce Bowen, of Clun, who was to die only a month before the end of the Great War, not through shot or shell but, in a twist of fate, through disease.

She is believed to have been Jeannie or Jeanne Bywater, from the same general area. She outlived her soldier beau, but not for that long, her life apparently being taken by flu.

When we published a studio photograph of the pair not so long ago, we had no idea who they were. It was a postcard which came from Mrs Jan Cockerill, of Wellington, whose ancestors were from the Clun area. It was among items passed to her grandmother Jane Morris, later Pugh.

On the back of the postcard was written 'The 11th Prince Albert's Own Hussars'.

It turns out that a framed version of the exact same picture that we used stood for many years on the mantelpiece of a Shropshire family home. And the family also has a second photograph of the pair together which is slightly different, but clearly taken at the same time.

Mrs Hilda Bird, of Clun, got in touch to tell us more.

"The picture shows my husband David Bird's uncle, Ernest Pryce Bowen. He died on October 10, 1918, in Damascus, aged 26. He was a trooper in the Shropshire Yeomanry, according to information in St George's Church, Clun. We think his sweetheart's name was Jeanne Bywater, but we are not sure.

"He died of flu that swept through their unit. He is buried in the war cemetery out there. We think Jeanne may have died of the flu also, but after Christmas 1919 as we have a picture of her then.

"My sister-in-law, Mrs Ann Peters, nee Bird, of Stourbridge, has the same picture as the one in the paper somewhere, but has not found it yet. It was always in a frame on the mantelpiece at the family home.

"I should say Jeanne would be from the Clun area – there were a lot of Bywaters at Newcastle-on-Clun and still are.

"She can remember her mum saying she thought her name was that and she thinks she died of the flu as well."

Pryce, as he appears to have been known - his name appears in any event as Pryce Bowen on Clun war memorial - was one of three children. The others were Dorothy - who was David's mum - and Annie. Dorothy was born in 1910, and so would have been only eight when her older brother died. Pryce was born in 1892.

"They lived in Clun, at Waterloo, by the bridge here. That was the family home at the time he died. My mother-in-law moved to Ford Street in Clun, and that was where the picture always was."

There is confusing information about what unit Pryce served in. Hilda says he went in initially in the Hussars but then changed units. One website search has put him in the 12th Signals while the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website records the death of a Private E.P. Bowen on October 10, 1918, giving his unit as Machine Gun Corps (Cavalry), 20th Squadron. He is buried at Damascus Commonwealth War Cemetery.

To add to the conflicting information, the Wellington Journal & Shrewsbury News includes in its long casualty lists published on December 28, 1918, an E.P. Bowen, of the Machine Gun Corps, but gives his home town not as Clun, but as Shrewsbury. .

• Can anybody shed light on the life and death at a young age of Jeanne Bywater? If so, get in touch with Toby Neal on (01952) 241458, or: toby.neal@shropshirestar.co.uk