Walter Bowell was born at Steeple Aston Oxfordshire on 13 August 1895.  He was one of the four children of George Bowell and his wife Amy Louisa (née Charter) of Long Compton, Warwickshire.  Before joining the Royal Navy in December 1911 he worked at a corset makers in Bath.  He served in the battleships HMS ZEALANDIA and HMS QUEEN ELIZABETH, the latter seeing action in the Dardanelles in 1915. He was drowned when the compartment he was in flooded during the collision with HMS K22.  

He is buried in St Peter and St Paul’s churchyard, Long Compton, where he is also commemorated on the village war memorial.