LIEUTENANT HENRY WILLIAM BOWD
AUSTRALIAN FLYING CORPS
25TH OCTOBER 1917 AGE 33
BURIED: CAIRO WAR MEMORIAL CEMETERY, EGYPT
Tennyson's words, spoken by Gareth in 'Idylls of the King', summarise the knights code; the King is Christ.
Henry Bowd was a solicitors articled clerk in Inverell New South Wales before he enlisted as private in July 1915. Sent to Egypt in March 1916 - arriving in June - he began aerial observation instruction in August before qualifying as a pilot in April 1917.
He was killed near Heliopolis when test flying a modified Martinsyde G.102 A 1607. At a height of 4000 ft the plane seemed to stall and began to dive. Bowd seemed to be successfully pulling it out of the dive when it began to break up, caught fire, broke into pieces and crashed.
His father chose his inscription.