Royal Military College Sandhurst trousers worn by Alan John Bowles, 1914 (c)

Bowles was already an officer cadet at Sandhurst when war was declared. He completed his training in 1914, before first being sent to work as the aide-de-camp of General Fanshawe. Bowles served in various places around France, before eventually succumbing to a stomach complaint - later revealed to be a hernia. After an operation and recuperation in Britain, he returned to the front, this time as a company second-in-command with the Royal Berkshire Regiment. He was killed on 10 April 1916 by a shell while sitting on the edge of a trench in reserve. Bowles was buried at Becourt Military Cemetery in Becordel-Becourt on the Somme.