Cowe | Alexander Johnston
Biography
Alexander was the son of Alexander Johnstone Cowe (1887-1972) and Elizabeth Balfour Stott Cowe (1891-1975).
He had 5 sisters; Evelyn Johnstone Cowe (1910-1981) Edith Johnstone Cowe (1911-2005) Barbara Alexina Johnstone Cowe (1913-1998) Helen Craig Balfour Stott Cowe (1925-1959) Jean Ann Stewart Cameron Fuller (1923-1998) and 1 brother James Stott Cowe (1919-1994).
They were all born in Aberdeen in Scotland and later they moved to Devon Avenue in Fleetwood in Lancashire.
Alexander attended Bailey School in Fleetwood and at the age of 18 joined the army.
Military career
Alexander joined the King’s Own Royal Regiment (Lancaster) 1st Battalion and left for India by sailing ship early in the war.
The King’s Own Royal Regiment (Lancaster),1st Battalion was stationed in Malta at the outbreak of war and moved from Madras to Karachi in British India in late 1939 and would be involved in heavy fighting under harsh conditions in the ‘Western Desert Campain’ in the following years.
In Karachi, they began tasks related to coastal defence and internal security. There were also intensive training periods in preparation for future actions. In 1941, the battalion was sent to Iraq after the pro-British regime there was overthrown by a nationalist coup. This was one of the first wartime airlift of British troops. After helping install a new government, it moved to Egypt to serve in the Western Desert the following year.
According to the family, Alexander was on his way home from India for a short holiday when he was called up to the ‘Desert Army’ for the Western Desert Campaign.
In June 1942, the battalion was on the Libyan-Egyptian border. Field Marshal Rommel’s Afrika Corps launched its attack to the east on 26 May 1942 and advanced rapidly. The newly arrived 1st King’s Own Royal Regiment took up a defensive position called ‘Sollum Box’. With the growing German threat, the battalion began retreating along the Mediterranean coast. In late June, the battalion was ordered to break through to Fuka and El Alamein airfield. In the process, many of them were killed, wounded or captured.
On 1 July, the battalion held its position on the El Alamein defence line – less than 100 kilometres from the major port of Alexandria. On 4 July, the British position was stronger and the line still held. Egypt did not fall and the defensive line proved successful, but at the cost of many lives.
Around 28 June, Alexander was reported as ‘missing’. It was assumed that he was missing or perhaps killed in the fighting around El Alamein. Consequently, on 30 July 1942, he was officially reported missing on duty at location Western Desert.
For the family, ambiguity arose from then on. They received an unconfirmed report that Alexander had been killed and were in utter uncertainty.
What exactly happened at El-Alamein is not yet known but it later became clear that he was captured and transported to Italy.
In 1943, Alexander was a POW (prisoner of war) at Camp 73 Fossoli of Carpi near Modena in Italy. He was then transported as a POW to Stalag 4A prison in Hohenstein in Germany. Several of his comrades from the battalion were also imprisoned here, the camp reports show.
He was liberated by the Americans in spring 1945. The exact details of the circumstances surrounding his death are not known yet, but unfortunately, on 16 April 1945, he was killed in an air raid in Germany. He was 28 years old at the time.
He was transported to the Netherlands and temporarily buried at Margraten War Cemetery in grave GGG-10-230.
On 1 May 1947, he is reburied at Overloon War Cemetery in grave IV. A.12.
His parents had the following inscribed on his headstone: Silence is the greatest grief, but memories remain.
Alexander is commemorated on the Fleetwood War Memorial in Lancashire.
