William Bowen

Major-General William Oswald Bowen (10 November 1898 – 14 January 1961) was a British Army officer who served in both world wars.

Military career Bowen was born in Llanelli, Carmarthenshire, and educated at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. He received a commission on the unattached list of the British Indian Army on 21 December 1917. He served with the Royal Gurkha Rifles in France during the First World War, and on 22 March 1918 commissioned into the regiment. He served with the Gurkha Rifles, including in the Waziristan campaign (1919–20), until his secondment to the Royal Corps of Signals in October 1926. On 29 September 1928 he transferred to the Royal Signals, and Bowen was employed with the Burma Military Police and the Civil Government of Burma until 1936. Between 1936 and 1939 Bowen was engaged against the Arab revolt in Palestine.

In May 1939, Bowen became the Chief Signal Officer on the Burma Front in British Burma Army, and he was Mentioned in Dispatches in October 1942 for his services in the Burma Campaign. In September 1949 he was promoted to the rank of major-general and worked as Chief Signal Officer, Middle East Land Forces until 1951. From 1951 until his retirement in September 1954 he was Director of Signals at the War Office.