Lieutenant C.E.L. BOWEN, East African Police

[Harry Fecitt]

Great War graves in Kisumu Cemetery, Kenya

Gentlemen

I recently produced these short notes for the journal of the King's African Rifles & East African Forces Association & I post them here for general interest.

Harry

[Harry Fecitt]

Lieutenant Cuthbert Bowen's grave in Kisumu Cemetery, Kenya

Lieutenant C.E.L. BOWEN, East African Police

The civilian European graves in Kisumu Cemetery are now suffering from neglect but the graves tended by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission are well maintained, and these include nine graves holding German remains that were brought in from Kisii Boma after the action there on 12th September 1914.

One interesting CWGC headstone at Kisumu commemorates Lieutenant C.E.L. Bowen of the East African Police who was killed in action on 1^st December 1914, age 30 years. CWGC records list Lt Bowen as serving in the East African Corps of Military Police. "The Bond of Sacrifice", Volume 1, states that he was attached to the King's African Rifles at the time of his death.

Cuthbert Edward Latimer Bowen was the son of a Swansea vicar. He was educated at Rugby and he served in the South African War with the Queen's Royal West Surrey Regiment (Militia), joining the 1^st Battalion of that Regiment at Peshawar on a Regular Commission in 1903. However in 1905 he left the Army to accept a Colonial Office post as an Assistant District Inspector of Police in British East Africa.

On the declaration of war Cuthbert Bowen was commissioned into the forces of the British East Africa Protectorate and was sent with a few policemen to operate on the German East African border southwest of Kisumu. In late November 1914 the British Forces in this area were "E" Company 4 KAR under Major R.F.B. Knox working out of defended camps at Suna and Butende, supported by Bowen's police detachment and Ross' Scouts. The latter unit had been recently raised by Major Charles Joseph Ross DSO, an East African hunter and adventurer who was working in the BEA Game Department, and consisted of around 40 mounted men known to Ross. Ross's Scouts had been in the Lake border area since the Kisii action, raiding south to Musoma and the Mara River and removing any cattle that they found back to BEA territory.

The German Schutztruppe forces in the area were No 7 and No 14 Field Companies based at Mwanza under Captain Bock von Wulfingham (whose photograph can be seen in the Arusha Boma Museum). These companies had deployed forward detachments in forts at Musoma, Utegi and Shirati, but pressure from the British had recently caused the Schutztruppe to evacuate Shirati. However German patrols remained near the border.

Lieutenant Bowen was working with "E" Company 4 KAR and during a patrol on late November he captured a German prisoner. News then came in of two more Germans with Askari on Susuni Hill, 25 miles southeast of Shirati. On 1^st December Major Ross at Butende ordered Cuthbert Bowen and his police with half of "E" Company, a total of around 50 men, to attack this enemy detachment and hopefully take more prisoners.

On reaching the objective the British force split, a KAR officer taking his Askari on one route whilst Cuthbert Bowen made directly for the summit with his police. As the police approached the summit the Schutztruppe surprised them, killing Lieutenant Bowen and two policemen. The British force consolidated and fought with the Germans, forcing a Schutztruppe withdrawal as darkness fell. The following morning the three British dead were recovered and buried at the foot of Susuni Hill. Later Cuthbert Bowen's remains were re-buried in Kisumu Cemetery.

Ross' Scouts had become notorious and controversial by the end of 1914 and they were disbanded. Around 30 of them enlisted in the East African Mounted Rifles as a Scouts Troop under Lieutenant J.J. Drought and this troop remained in the Lake border area. Sporadic fighting continued in the region until the capture of Mwanza by British forces in July 1916. By then Drought was a Major commanding the East Lake Border Police.

[Nick]

Interesting post thanks for the update !

[Harry Fecitt]

Cuthbert Bowen's memorial plaque in Nairobi Church of England Cathedral

[peter monahan]

A fascinating report on a little known aspect of the Great War! Thank you for sharing it with us.

However, I was struck by this reference: "Ross' Scouts had become notorious and controversial by the end of 1914 and they were disbanded."

Morbid curiousity compels me to ask. What had Ross and his men done or allegedly done to deserve disbandment?

Peter

[Harry Fecitt]

Here's what I have written elsewhere (extracts from 3 postings):

Ross's Scouts

Ross's Scouts was a white mounted unit formed in British East Africa after the declaration of war.

Major Charles Joseph Ross DSO had been born in Australia in 1857. He ran away as a child to America where he lived with Indians, & then was a scout for the US Army in three Indian wars.

He then joined the Canadian North West Mounted Police for six years & was Chief Scout during the Riel Rebellion.

In the South African War he was awarded a DSO whilst riding with Roberts Horse & later comanded the Canadian Scouts.

He then stayed in Africa trading in Bukoba & buying land in GEA. He poached in the wilder parts of BEA & GEA, & when the German authorities seized his land in retaliation he moved to the Kisii region of BEA, continuing his activities & selling his ivory to an Asian trader in Shirati, just across the GEA border from Karonga.

Angry about the loss of his land Ross would sometimes raid across the GEA border to seize herds of native cattle, infuriating the German authorities.

To curtail these activities BEA appointed him an Assistant Game Ranger in 1907 & he gradually became respectable, guideing Theodore Rooseveldt's Smithsonian Institute Safari in 1909.

A year later he guided another Safari for "Buffalo" Jones, a famous USA wild-life conserver who wished to lassoo animals & photograph them rather than shoot them dead.

On this safari the photographer was Cherry Kearton who later served in East Africa in the 25th Royal Fusiliers before moving to photographic duties with flying units.

Charles Ross knew the bush on both sides of the border & he was a proven military leader.

On the declaration of war he was appointed to form his own unit of Scouts & in November 1914 the 40 men of Ross's Scouts were sent to secure the western end of the BEA-GEA border area.

Back on the ground he knew well Major Ross wasted no time in settling old scores.

He is believed to have sent the male organs from a slaughtered goat across the GEA border to his old adversary District Commissioner Schultz, along with a note explaining that this was what the DC could look forward to.

"E" Company 4 KAR established defended posts on the border south of Karungu & raided southwards into GEA with Ross. The opposition was minimal as the Schutztruppe (weak detachments of 7 FK & 14 FK) were south of the Mara River.

Probably now things started to get out of hand, Ross's Scouts were a rough bunch of lads even by African frontier standards, & the looting & killing may have been "over the top" to spectators in Nairobi.

Also, as was to happen elsewhere during the war, the temptation of seeing cash in the form of ivory ambling around the bush may not have been resisted.

On 28 November 1914 Ross & his men rode into Shirati to find the Germans gone, but he had to ride quickly out when a British steamer shelled the town (see Post #354).

However Ross & 4 KAR did not always win without loss. On 01 December a KAR & BEA Police patrol about 50 strong had a sharp fight at Susini during which the British lost BEA Police Lieutenant C.E.L. Bowen & two Askari.

This border area quietened down in December but flared up again in January 1915 resulting in a deployment of Loyal North Lancashires onto the Lake.

On 13 January 1914 General Stewart interviewed both Major C.R. Ross & Lieutenant Paysant of Ross's Scouts at Kisumu. As a result of these interviews it was decided to disband Ross's Scouts.

Ross's 40 men chose where next to go & some went on Intelligence duties. Lieutenant J.J. Drought & 18 other officers, NCOs & men were posted to the East African Mounted Rifles on 15 January. They stayed in the eastern Lake area & were known as "Drought's Troop", & they raised a force of tribesmen for cross-border patrolling known as the "Skin Corps" because of the tribesmens' aversion to using clothing.

On the disbandment of Ross's Scouts Charles Ross dropped out of sight.

The Official History states that he resigned his commission in December 1914, but his unit wasn't disbanded until mid-January 1915..

He qualified for the 1914/15 Star, & for the War & Victory medals & his medal card lists him as a Major in Ross's Scouts, East African Mounted Rifles & East African Signal Company.

The History of The East African Mounted Rifles does not list him as ever being on strength.

Neil Speed who wrote his biography "Born to Fight" (The Caps & Flints Press, Melbourne, 2002) believes that he may have joined his old pals Paddy Driscoll & Frederick Selous in 25th Royal Fusiliers (The Legion of Frontiersmen) & become involved in Intelligence duties. Certainly he was convalescing back in UK in 1917 when the remnants of 25th Royal Fusiliers also were.

After the war Ross re-joined the BEA Game Department, working from his home in Eldama Ravine, Rift Valley Province in what is now Kenya.

On 19 June 1922, just 15 days short of his 65th birthday, he died of double pneumonia caused by exposure after a fall whilst out on patrol.

Does anyone have any more information on Charles Ross's war service?