Alfred Edward Dowson

Formerly a Lance Sergeant with the 8th Battalion, Alfred died on 27th of March 1920 at the age of 23.

Alfred was born at Lowestoft in 1896, a son of George and Louisa Elizabeth Dowson. He was baptised at Saint Margaret’s Church on 4 December 1896 and his family lived at 221 Clapham Road. In 1901 his family lived at 26 Grosvenor Road, Great Yarmouth. By 1911 they had moved to 7 Spurgeon’s Score, Lowestoft, and this would be Alfred’s home for the rest of his life. In 1911 Alfred worked as an errand boy at a clothier’s shop. 

Alfred volunteered and enlisted in the Suffolk Regiment soon after the outbreak of war. He arrived in France on 17 August 1915 to join the 8th Battalion. In 1916 he was awarded the Military Medal (London Gazette 21 December 1916). A report in the Lowestoft Journal, 25 November 1916, states that he received the award for gallantry under heavy shell-fire and this must have been in connection with the battalion’s activities in the Battle of the Somme.

The 8th Battalion was disbanded in France in February 1918 and personnel send to the 2nd, 1/4th and 7th Battalions. It is unclear which, if any of these, battalions Alfred served with, but he was wounded in 1918 and his name appears in the War Office Daily List of 14 May 1918.

There is no information about Alfred being discharged from the Army, but he died of pneumonia at the Ministry of Pensions Hospital, Birmingham, and his details are listed in the Army’s Register of Soldiers’ Effects.