Henry Bowen was born in Farndon, Cheshire, England, in 1864, the son of John and Sarah Ann Bowen (née Whitley). His father was a labourer, who worked as a coal miner for a time, and Henry was one of five known children, and likely to have been the eldest in the family.
He was a professional seaman in the Mercantile Marine, but also worked as a cattle drover for a time.
On the 9th July 1889, he married to Mary Ann Cheers Lane in Liverpool and in 1915, they lived at 36, Jackson Street, Birkenhead, Cheshire, with their four children. They had lost another three children in infancy or early childhood.
On the 12th April 1915, Henry Bowen engaged at Liverpool, as a fireman in the Engineering Department on board the Lusitania, at a monthly rate of pay of £6-10s-0d, (£6.50p.), £1-0s-0d of which was advanced to him at the time. He reported for duty on board ship at 8 a.m. on the 17th April, before she left the River Mersey for the last time. His previous ship had been the S.S. Voltaire.
Having successfully completed the first leg of the liner’s return journey to New York, Fireman Bowen was killed when the Lusitania was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine, U-20, six days out of New York on her return voyage. At that time, the liner was within sight of the coast of southern Ireland and only hours away from the safety of her home port. As his body was never found and identified, afterwards, his name is embossed on the Mercantile Marine Memorial at Tower Hill, London. He was aged 51 years, although he gave his age as 49, when he engaged.
He is also commemorated on the County Borough of Birkenhead War Memorial in Hamilton Square, Birkenhead, Merseyside.
In August 1915, his widow Mary was paid the balance of wages owing to him in respect of his service on board from the 17th April 1915 until the 8th May; 24 hours after the liner had gone down. The Liverpool and London War Risks Insurance
Association Limited granted a yearly pension to Mary Bowen to compensate her for the loss of her husband which amounted to £18-8s-1d. (£18.40½p.), which was payable at the rate of £1-10s-9d. (£1.53½p.) per month.
The family was obviously still bitter about his loss three years after his death, for in the In Memoriam column of the Birkenhead News and Advertiser for the 7th May 1918, after the details of his death, they had submitted the biblical text: -
“Revenge is mine and I will repay,
Saith The Lord.”
Register of Births, Marriages, and Deaths, 1871 Census of Wales, 1881 Census of England, 1891 Census of England, 1901 Census of England, 1911 Census of England, Cunard Records, Commonwealth War Graves Commission, UK Campaign Medals Awarded to World War I Merchant Seamen 1914 – 1925, Birkenhead War Memorial Records, Birkenhead News, PRO BT 100/345, PRO BT 334, PRO BT 351/1/13469, UniLiv. PR 13/24, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.
Revised & Updated – 17th December 2022.