BORN HULL 1880. ENLISTED HULL. SON OF HARRY & MARY FOWLER & 8 CHILDREN ABOVE. LEFT HARRY MARY. MARTHA, MARIA, FRED, HERBERT & GEORGE.
Hull Pals Memorial Post. PRIVATE JOHN FOWLER MM 3/6921. Born in 1880, John was the eldest of seven children to Harry and Mary Fowler of 4 New Cheapside, Hull. He worked in an Ink Works prior to the war. Details are sketchy, but John’s serial number puts him in the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment which in August 1914 was stationed in Beverley and remained in the UK throughout the war most notably as the Humber Garrison at Fort Paull and Withernsea where they manned the newly-built forts guarding the mouth of the Humber Estuary. Perhaps, when manpower grew short after the costly campaigns of 1916-17, the army pillaged the 3rd Battalion for able-bodied men; or perhaps John could simply not stand to sit on the sidelines while his comrades fought and died in France; whatever the reason, John was transferred to the 11th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment and was killed in action on 27th March 1918 during the German Spring Offensive. He is buried at Douchy-Les Ayette British Cemetery and was most likely given a hasty battlefield burial and exhumed after the Armistice; he was 38 years old, and had been awarded the Military Medal for conspicuous bravery in the field.
