Lance-Corporal in the Royal West Kent Regiment. The memorial states that he won the Military Medal and was killed in action at the age of 23.
We requested our colleague Andrew Behan to research the Cownden surnames on the war memorial. He states that he could find no evidence that this man was awarded the Military Medal but that Alexander Sylvester Cownden was born In Charlton, one of the fifteen children of Charles Henry Cownden (1860-1953) and Emma Cownden née Sylvester (1863-1923). His birth was registered in the 3rd quarter of 1892 in the Woolwich registration district.
In the 1901 census he is shown as living at 41 Idenden Cottages, East Greenwich, with his parents and five siblings: Charles Henry Cownden (1888-1937), William John Cownden (1891-1949), Elizabeth Florence May Cownden (1894-1986), Sidney Albert Cownden (1898-1917) and Henry Charles Cownden (1900-1891). His father was described as a River Thames lighterman. A later sibling, Albert Ernest Cownden (1905-1940), was born on 25 May 1905.
On 7 September 1914 he enlisted as a Private in the Queen's Own (Royal West Kent Regiment), service number G/2315 in Greenwich, giving his occupation as a labourer and declaring his age as 22 years and 40 days. This would mean that he was born on 29 July 1892. On 9 September 1914 he was posted to their 7th (Service) Battalion at their Maidstone Depot. Following training he entered Le Havre, France on 26 July 1915 and on 11 December 1915 he was appointed in the field as an unpaid Lance Corporal. He was killed in action, aged 23 years, on 24 February 1916 in France and his body was buried in Plot 1, Row E, Grave 1, in the Becourt Military Cemetery, Becordel-Becourt, Somme, France.
On 24 April 1916 his father was sent his army effects totalling six shillings and eleven pence and on 10 September 1919 his father was sent his £5-10s-0d war gratuity. He was posthumously awarded the the 1914-1915 Star, the British War Medal 1914-1918 and the Victory Medal. In January 1920 his father was also sent his Memorial Plaque & Scroll.
He is additionally commemorated in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's website and The London WW1 Memorial website.
Credit for this entry to: Alan Patient of www.plaquesoflondon.co.uk
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