HIS SON'S GRAVE

Grey River Argus, 1 September 1917, Page 8

HIS SON 'S GRAVE

FATHER 'S DISCOVERY IX

FRANCE

One oi' lhe most poignant stories of the war — how a father. found on the buttlciieid the grave of his flying son, who had' been";" missing for. eight '^veeks— lately reached London. On Mfiri'h "ii»'th Capta.in Eldred V.'olfWstan Bowyer-Bower, East Surrey aiid Royal Flying Corps, went up to make a reconnaissance. 'Eye-witnesses state that he had passed from five "to seven miles behind the then Hindenburg line when he was attacked, by six enemy airmen.' His machine was seen to descend.

The British advance came weelcs Inter. In tho vanguard was a .detachment of the Royal Engineers, which included the missing ."airmail's father, ■Captain 'I*. Bowyar-BoiVer. The father heard that hot far' away was a grave marked by a cross made from pieces of a! wrecked ae^oplnUe which bbi*e_in ■pencil the Words : "Two unknown. I captains of the flying .corps. "■■<..." Knowing .'' that his* son had' been brought down close by, he determined to inspect "the grave. The number on the remiaris of the aeroplane convinced klm that his son lay. buried 'there. And stuck oil the. primitive cross with a piece of mud was. the tag of U'tunie bearing* the name of the London tailor who had -made his son 's. uniform.

Permission was obtained to exhume the body; and the father found that; it was that, of his son.- 'It was buried with the" 'body of the observer. The clothes had been stripped of all valuables, and the identification discs had been removed. The bodies were removed to the cemetery of a little village a few miles away-' and while they were being;., placed »n coffins on the battlefield the Germans shelled ahd sniped tlie mon engaged in the task.