William Ernest Bowring
1939 - carton scorer (box making)
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William Ernest (Bill) was the son of Horace Arthur and Elizabeth Bowring (née Devison).
Horace (b. Radford, birth reg. 1884 JFM) and Elizabeth (b. West Bromwich abt. 1888) were married in 1907 (reg. OND Nottingham) and had had four children by 1918: Lily May b. 1908 d. December 1913; Gladys Ivy b. 1910; Horace Arthur (Arthur) b. 1915 bap. Radford All Souls 22 August 1915 and William Ernest b. 1918. All the children were born in Radford.
The record of one member of the household on the 1939 Register of England & Wales remains closed, and may have been that of a third son, John T. Bowring whose birth was registered in 1922 (JFM Nottm.), mother's maiden name 'Devison'. John (Trevor) Bowring married Mavis Cooper in 1944 (reg. Leicester) and died in Gorleston, Norfolk, in 2010.
Horace, an incadescent goods packer, Elizabeth and their daughters Lily and Gladys were living at 5 Cobden Street, Radford, in 1911. Their daughter Lily died two years later (burial 30 December 1913).
Horace, a power press operator (cycle pressings), Elizabeth and their three surviving children, Gladys, Horace and WIlliam, were living at 21 Futher (sic) Street, Radford, in 1921. Also in the household was a boarder, Louisa Harley (30), a syphon filler (Boots the Chemist).
Horace's wife, Elizabeth, died on 7 April 1924 (burial 10 April) and Horace married Mabel Lawrence (b. 1890, spinster) at Radford St Peter on 3 August 1925.
Horace was living at 21 Guthrie Street, Radford, at the time of his second marriage and he and Mabel were at the same address in 1939 when the England & Wales Register was compiled. Also in the household was William Ernest, a carton scorer (box making); a record of one member of the household remains closed (see above). Gladys was a domestic servant at 26 Parkside, Nottingham, in the household of Herbert and Dorothy Daws, and Horace Arthur, a dairy salesman, was living in the home of Frederick and Maggie Knight, 39 Albert Grove, Nottingham.
Gladys, occupation servant, home address 21 Guthrie Street, joined the Women's Land Army, on 15 April 1942. Gladys resigned for medical reasons on 29 September 1944. She had married William A Patterson in 1943 (reg. JFM Northumberland North First) and their son Malcolm was born in 1946 and a daughter Jennifer in 1949. Gladys died in February 1995, burial Tweedmouth St Bartholomew churchyard; her husband William predeceased her (1973).
Horace married Evelyn Harriet (Ella) Tapps in 1942 and their son Geoffrey was born the following year. Evelyn died on 19 August 1944 aged 24. Horace died in November 2009 aged 94 (reg. Arthur Horace).
William Ernest married Olwyn Bailey at New Whittington St Barnabus, Derbyshire in 1944. His widow married secondly Dennis A Flear in 1948; they had two sons.
Horace Arthur snr. died on 16 March 1967 aged 83 and his widow Mabel on 25 February 1972.
William served at HMS Daedalus at Lee-on-Solent, Hampshire, before his death.
He died from pulmonary tuberculosis at Newstead Sanatorium, Fish Pool, near Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, on 31 January 1947 and was buried in Arnold Cemetery, Nottingham (Class B. Uncons. Grave 4025).
HMS Daedalus was commissioned in 1917 as the Naval Seaplane Training School, Daedalus. The Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) became part of the newly established Royal Air Force in 1918. HMS Daedalus closed at the end of the Great War but continued as an airfield for flying training. When the Fleet Air Arm was established in May 1939 and transferred to Admiralty control, Lee-on-Solent was one of the first ex-RAF stations commissioned by the Royal Navy (RNAS Lee-on-Solent, HMS Daedalus). On D-Day June 1944 it was one of the busiest of the UK airfields. Post-war, the number of squadrons based at Daedalus was reduced and it became the base for associated organisations such as the Central Air Medical School, Naval Air Accident Investigation Unit, Air Engineering School and Joint Service Hovercraft Trials Unit The decision to decommission the air station was taken in 1991 and it closed in July 1996. (Sources include: daedalusaviation.org/aerodrome-history, www.fareham.gov.uk/daedalus/daedalushistory
William's father may have served in the First World War as there is a record of a Horace A Bowring who served in the Sherwood Foresters (Private 16455) but later transfered to the Labour Corps (617351 Private). Qualified for the British War Medal, Victory Medal.
There is a 1939 record of a Horace Arthur Bowring who had joined the Royal Regiment of Artillery (981830), probably as a reservist, although no other records have yet been traced that he served in the Army during the war.
CWGC Additional information: Son of Horace Arthur and Mabel Bowring, of Nottingham; husband of Olwyn Bowring, of Radford, Nottingham.
CWGC headstone personal inscription: 'In loving memory of my dear husband Bill. Some day we shall understand'
Nottingham Evening Post, ‘Deaths’, 9 April 1924: ‘Bowring. On April 7th, at the General Hospital, Lizzie, beloved wife of Horace Bowring passed peacefully away.’ (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk)
Nottingham Evening Post, ‘Deaths’, 19 August 1944: ‘Bowring. August, 17th, Ella beloved wife of Arthur, and mother of Geoffrey, died. Funeral Bulwell 2.30pm Tuesday.’ (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk)
Nottingham Evening Post, ‘Acknowledgements’, 24 August 1944: [Evelyn Harriet (Ella) Bowring née Tapps] ‘Mr Arthur Bowring and Mr and Mrs George Tapps wish to thank all friends and relatives for their great kindness and floral tributes in their sad bereavement, appreciation to nursing staff, City Hospital.’
Nottingham Evening Post, ‘Acknowledgements’, 7 February 1947: ‘Bowring. Mrs WE Bowring, Mr and Mrs HA Bowring and Family wish to thank relatives, friends and neighbours for their kindness and floral tributes in their recent sad bereavement. Also the doctors and staff of Newstead Sanatorium.’ (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk)
Probate William Ernest of 12 Sullivan-street Radford Nottinghamshire died 31 January 1947 at Newstead Sanatorium Fish Pool Nottinghamshire Administration Nottingham 27 May to Olwyn Bowring widow. Effects £228 0s. 5d.
Nottingham Evening Post, ‘Deaths’, 26 February 1972: ‘Bowring. Mabel. On February 25th, 1972. Widow of the late Horace Arthur. Service and interment Wilford Hill 2pm. Wednesday. Floral tributes to Clowers.’ (www.britishnwspaperachive.co.uk)
Additional research/record updated, RF (March 2026).
William Ernest Bowring
Buried Arnold Cemetery, Nottingham. Photograph Tracy Dodds