2nd Lieutenant, 66th Battalion Machine Gun Corps.
Died 30th March 1918, age 20.
Commemorated on the Pozieres Memorial, France.
Student of engineering.
James was born in 1897 at Cheadle, Cheshire, to J.H. Bowden, a commercial traveller, of Grimsargh near Preston. He attended a private school, Maitaubow, in St Annes and then King Edward VII School, Lytham from September 1909 to July 1915. He joined Manchester University to study engineering and was a member of the University Officer Training Corps from 23rd January 1916 to 3rd October 1916. Gazetted in February 1917 he was an officer in the Machine Gun Corps and was killed in France near Aubercourt in March 1918. His school magazine reported that he died gallantly at the head of his men. He left effects worth £124 19s 4d to his father.