COWAN Alan William Russell

Appears in the Worcester/Worcestershire Roll of Honour Book for army casualties located in Worcester Cathedral with the information: Lieutenant. Canadian Highlanders.

Alan Cowan enlisted as a Lieutenant in the 103rd Battalion, Canadian Overseas Expeditionary Force on 12th February 1916 at Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.  On his Officers Declaration Paper he gave his date of birth as 5th March 1887 at Wisbech, Norfolk, England (given as Upwell, Norfolk on the 1891 census), his current address as Vernon, British Columbia and his next of kin as his father Reverend R.D.R. Cowan, Bushley, Tewkesbury, England.  Alan was employed as a Rancher and he had been serving for 7 months with the 30th British Columbia Horse.

On 23rd July 1916 Alan sailed with his unit from Canada bound for England where he arrived on 31st July 1916.  He was transferred to 73rd Battalion on 7th August 1916 and proceeded for service overseas on 12th August.  Alan arrived in France on 13th August 1916, just one week later on 20th August 1916, he died of wounds at No 10 Casualty Clearing Station (shell wounds legs, compound fracture left femur.)  At the time of his death his next of kin was his wife, Mrs Emily Harris Russell Cowan.

The Canada War Graves Registers (Circumstances of Casualty) record the following information on Lieutenant Alan Cowan:
“Died of Wounds” (Shell Wounds Legs, Compound Fracture Left Femur)
On the afternoon of August 19th August 1916, he was with his Company marching along the Ypres-Poperinghe Road, to camp, after being in billets at Ypres, when an enemy shell struck the roadway severely wounding him, the effects from which he died the following morning at No. 10 Casualty Clearing Station.