NEWS of the death of former Southampton Mayor Alderman Henry Bowyer R.N.R., was received with widespread shock and regret a century ago this week in Southampton, when the Daily Echo delivered the tragic announcement on the pages of the newspaper back in July 1915.

As well as his spell as the town’s most prominent civic figure, the deceased gentleman had also occupied many notable other positions in the town, including Lieutenant-Commander of the Royal Naval Reserve, a magistrate for the borough, and a Trinity House Pilot.

Alderman Bowyer was one of the outstanding personalities of recent public life in Southampton.

He was a member of a family which, for long years, had been associated with the uprising of Southampton the port – a family which for generations followed the same course of professional employment.

Nearly all of them were Trinity House pilots and it was by no means an exaggeration to suggest that Henry Bower was one of the best known pilots along the coast.

However, it was his time as Mayor, a position he occupied during the year of the Titanic disaster, that he was forever remembered.

Alderman Bowyer became Mayor in 1911 after only four years work membership on the council.

The Daily Echo’s obituary at the time claimed that Alderman Bowyer encountered a “secession of local problems” during his first year that would have proved overwhelming to even the most accomplished of candidates, yet few men slipped so easily into an unaccustomed task as Alderman Bowyer did, who went on to make a great success of his Mayoralty.

In the aftermath of grief that consumed the town following the White Star liner’s sinking, Alderman Bowyer orchestrated a Mayor’s Appeal which raised £41,000 towards a fund for the relief of the sufferers. His death came quite unexpectedly at the early age of 48 and it was reported at the time that this husband, father, brother and boon companion would be much missed by many.

In addition to this sad news of Alderman Bowyer’s passing, the pages of the Daily Echo and her sister paper, the Southampton Pictorial, continued to be dominated at the time by the events of the First World War with the Southampton Pictorial, in particular, carrying various photographs of our gallant men both at the front and at home.

One such picture was of Southampton Rifleman F. Cousins, of the Rifle Brigade, who appeared in the Southampton Pictorial picture from one hundred years ago, whilst recovering from a shrapnel would received at Aubers Ridge.

The 22-year-old rifleman is proudly pictured with the German soldier’s helmet he is holding, having shot the owner of it himself.

Rifleman Cousins was the youngest of four brothers who resided at 86, Imperial Avenue in the town.

The other three brothers were also serving in the war, with two of the siblings in the Army, while the other one was in the Navy.

Another light-hearted wartime photograph that featured in the Southampton Pictorial in July 1915 was snap of the mascot of the Rifle Brigade – a handsome bulldog dressed up in a soldier’s peak cap.

The photo was judged to be a worthy winner of that week’s Prize Photograph competition in the Pictorial which won a prize of half-a-guinea To Mr G. C. Rumney, of St Thomas Street, Winchester, for his patriotic picture.