Note - in some records he is incorrectly names as Edward BOWYER-GREEN, wherein fact Bowyer was his middle name (the maiden name of his mother). Birth registration and census records confirm that the family name was just Green.

Edward was born on the 28th Sep 1896 in South Battersea, the son of John James Green, a compositor, and Annie Sophia (nee Bowyer). Edward became a Clerk at the Law Courts. He died in 1990 in Buckinghamshire.

Medal card :- (1) pte - 1/17 London Rifles no.7267 (2) Royal Irish Rifles no.15/43217

Pension records

Enlisted 8 Jan 1916 - 25th Bn County of London Cyclists no.3246
Transferred to 10th Res London Regt., 1/17th London Regt., 3rd Bn. 15th Royal Irtish Rifles no.15/43217
Last employer - Cit of London Corporation - Law Clerk.
Served Flanders from 27 Oct 1916 to 17 Aug 1917 as an infantryman.
Address - 42 Elspeth Rd, Clapham, S.W.
Demobilized - 6 Feb 1919
Defective vision- aggrevated. Defective vision & headaches caused through trench fever.
Level of disability - 30%

Imperial War Museum

Catalogue number - 9547
Subject period - First World War
Production date - 1986
Object category: IWM interview
Bowyer-Green, Edward (interviewee/speaker)
Hart, Peter M (recorder)
Category - sound 

Object description

British private served with 1/25th and 1/10th Bns London Regt in GB, 1916; rifleman and signaller served with 15th Bn Royal Irish Rifles on Western Front, 1916-1917
Content description

REEL 1 Background in Battersea, London, GB, 1896-1916: family; education including scholarship to City of London School, 1907-1913; reason for not joining Officers' Training Corps; employment as accountant and clerk in City of London court, 1914-1916; reaction to outbreak of war, 4/8/1914; memory of Boer War; question of reserved occupation status; effect of war on court work; story of enlisting under Derby Scheme prior to conscription, 1/1916; reason for joining 25th (Cyclist) Bn London Regt in Fulham, 1/1916. Aspects of training in GB, 1-11/1916: description of training at Feltham and Salisbury Plain; reaction to conversion of 25th Bn to infantry Bn and amalgamation with 10th Bn London Regt; reputation of 10th Bn as 'Hackney Gurkhas'; opinion of training; drafted to Harfleur Base Camp, France, and question of embarkation leave, 11/1916; posted to A Coy, 15th Bn Royal Irish Rifles at Neuve Eglise, Ypres area, Belgium, 11/1916; question of reinforcements for Irish battalions; story of execution of Irish soldiers and problem of recruitment in Ulster; attitude of Irish troops to British reinforcements. 

REEL 2 Continues: Recollections of operations with 15th Bn Royal Irish Rifles on Western Front, 1916-1917: description of role with Lewis gun team and question of training; relations with Irish troops; description of trench system and dugouts; personal kit; opinion of rations and importance of food parcels from home; water supply; cigarette ration and reason for starting smoking; rum ration; washing and sanitary facilities; problem of lice and rats; problem of cold weather and ice; state of health; posted to Signal Section attached to HQ Coy; story of repairing buried cable; nature of duties as signaller and description of equipment; repairing and laying lines. 

REEL 3 Continues: description of conditions in Neuve Eglise sector; description of preparations for Battle of Messines, 5/1917; practice attacks; amusing story of playing piano in concert party. Aspects of attack in Neuve Eglise sector, 7/Jun/1917: effect of mine explosions and unopposed advance; role as signaller maintaining communications with Bde; problem of damage to hearing caused by shell fire; story of dispute with NCO; problem of contracting typhus and evacuation to GB, 7/1917. Aspect of period in GB and Ireland, 1917-1919: description of medical treatment; posted to divisional HQ in County Down, Ireland, 1917; posted back to 15th Bn at Durrington Camp, Salisbury Plain, 1918; state of health. 

REEL 4 Continues: description of clerical duties with Inland Waterways and Docks Royal Engineers and as company clerk with 15th Bn; story of demobilization, 1/1919. Post-war life and employment: returned to employment in City of London Court; effect of war on health; question of pride in serving with Ulster Div; attitude to Irish and question of Ulster politics

Conscripts, or even suspected conscripts received poor treatment when joining Irish units. A draft of English conscripts to the 14th Royal Irish Rifles appears to have been dubbed the 'Gawd blimy brigade'. Edward Bowyer Green, drafted into the 15th Royal Irish Rifles from the 25th London Regiment, received an even less effusive welcome. As he noted, 'We were the pariahs you see, although we were helping their battalion we weren't one of them, they made out we were conscripts but we weren't, we were volunteers, territorials'. Some officers felt that the policy of drafting Englishmen to Irish battalions had all but destroyed the regimental system.

'Irish Regiments in the Great War : Discipline and Morale' by Timothy Bowman.