Fergus Bowes-Lyon

Captain Fergus Bowes-Lyon (18 April 1889 – 27 September 1915) was a British soldier and older brother of Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, Queen consort of the United Kingdom from 1936 until 1952. Bowes-Lyon was killed during World War I.

Early life

He was born at Ham, London and educated at Eton College, Berkshire. Just a fortnight after the start of World War I, he married Lady Christina Norah Dawson-Damer (7 August 1890 – 29 March 1959), daughter of the 5th Earl of Portarlington, on 17 September 1914. She bore him a daughter, Rosemary Luisa Bowes-Lyon (18 July 1915 – 18 January 1989). He was a keen cricketer and played in the annual autumn fixtures held at the cricket ground at Glamis Castle.

World War I

In the First World War he served with the 8th Battalion, Black Watch. Alfred Anderson, later the last surviving Scottish soldier of the conflict (and the last surviving British soldier to have been awarded the 1914 Star), was his batman.

Bowes-Lyon was killed during the Battle of the Hohenzollern Redoubt in the Battle of Loos. As he led an attack on the German lines, his leg was blown off by a barrage of German artillery and he fell back into his sergeant's arms. Bullets struck him in the chest and shoulder and he died on the field. He was buried in a quarry at Vermelles, but although the quarry was adopted as a war cemetery the details of his grave were lost and so he was recorded among the names of the missing on the Loos Memorial.

At the time of his death his brother John was also serving with the Black Watch. His younger brother Michael was at home recovering from wounds and his eldest brother, Lord Glamis, had recently left the Black Watch after being wounded. His mother, Cecilia Bowes-Lyon, Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne, was severely affected by the loss of her son, and after his death became an invalid, withdrawn from public life until the marriage of her daughter Elizabeth to the future king in 1923. Fergus's widow later married Captain William Frederick Martin (d. 6 October 1947).

In November 2011 his grandson supplied family records to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission detailing his original burial place, and showing that it had remained marked until the end of the war. As a result in August 2012 his place of commemoration was moved to the Quarry Cemetery, Vermelles, marked by a headstone inscribed with his details and the words "Buried near this spot" as the precise location of the grave is still not known.

Ancestry

Family of Fergus Bowes-Lyon

16. Thomas Lyon-Bowes, 11th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne               8. Thomas George Lyon-Bowes, Lord Glamis                       17. Mary Elizabeth Louisa Carpenter               4. Claude Bowes-Lyon, 13th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne                             18. Joseph Valentine Grimstead               9. Charlotte Grimstead                       19. Charlotte Jane Sarah Walsh               2. Claude Bowes-Lyon, 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne                                   20. George Smith               10. Oswald Smith                       21. Frances Mary Mosley               5. Frances Dora Smith                             22. Robert Hodgson, Dean of Carlisle               11. Henrietta Mildred Hodgson                       23. Mary Tucker               1. Fergus Bowes-Lyon                                         24. William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland               12. Lord Charles Bentinck                       25. Lady Dorothy Cavendish               6. Charles William Frederick Cavendish-Bentinck                             26. Richard Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley               13. Anne Wellesley                       27. Hyacinthe-Gabrielle Roland               3. Cecilia Cavendish-Bentinck                                   28. Edwyn Andrew Burnaby               14. Edwyn Burnaby                       29. Mary Browne               7. Caroline Louisa Burnaby                             30. Thomas Salisbury               15. Anne Caroline Salisbury                       31. Frances Webb