Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria, to include the Brian Ritchie Collection (Part II)

Pair: 2nd Lieutenant S. Rowson, Lancashire Fusiliers

British War and Victory Medals (2 Lieut.), nearly extremely fine (2) £100-120

Stanley Rowson was killed in action on the Somme in September 1916, while serving in the 11th Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers. Initially posted “missing”, his probable fate was confirmed by the statement of a Private from his unit in December of the same year:

‘I was next to this officer [Rowson] on 30 September at Thiepval, and Private Dawson was there, too, and their was a guide in front. We were going over to dig a communication trench after the attack of a couple of days before. A shell came over and burst between me and the officer. I was blown up in the air without a wound on me and Private Dawson was knocked out. Directly I recovered myself from being covered with dirt I looked for the officer, but he was no where to be seen. If he had gone on we should have seen him, and if he had gone back the C.O. would have seen him, as he had just passed us and gone down. I am afraid he must have been blown up ...’ (WO 339/619 refers).

Rowson, who was born in May 1886, had enlisted in the Inns of Court O.T.C. in January 1915 but was discharged to a commission in the 15th Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers in May of the same year. Subsequently posted to the 11th Battalion in France, he was present in an attack launched by his unit on 15 May 1916, when he commanded a digging party assigned to communication trench (and wiring) duties. It was while engaged on similar work in September that he was posted “missing”. He is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial.