Comyns Owers

An extract from the High Country History Group Journal No. 34 (October 2009).

Whilst at St Margaret’s, Stanford Rivers recently I came across a gravestone in the corner of the churchyard. The inscription read:

In

loving memory

of

Margaret Elizabeth Owers

Who died April 17^th 1928

In her 63^rd year

Also of

Comyns Owers

Missing in Egypt Nov 25^th 1917

Aged 21years

Also Comyns

Husband of the above

Who died Sep 28^th 1939

Aged 78 years.

It was the part of the inscription about Comyns Owers, missing in Egypt in 1917, that caught my eye.  Had he died on active service?  His name does not appear on the war memorial in St Margaret’s, but a search on the Commonwealth War Graves site revealed that Comyns Owers was a Private (no. 49346) in the 161^st Company of the Machine Gun Corps and died on the 25 November 1917.  He has no known grave and his name is commemorated on the Basra War Memorial in Iraq.[1]

His name appears however on the war memorial at St Mary’s church, High Ongar.

In the 1881 Census a John Owers (born 1832) was described as a Baker and Licensee living at the Green Man Public House Toot Hill.  He was also listed as a Farmer with 10 acres and employing 3 men. He had a son, Comyns Owers (born 1862) who was described in the census as a ‘Bakers Son.’

In the 1891 Census, Comyns Owers is married to Margaret and is living in High Street, Chipping Ongar where he is the Licensee of the Bell Inn.  He has 1 child and employs 3 servants.

In the 1901 Census Comyns and his wife are living at Stanford Rivers, and he is described as a Baker.  They have three more children, including a son, Comyns, born in 1887 in Stanford Rivers and who was to die on active service in 1917.  According to Scott in his history of Stanford Rivers, Comyns remained as the licensee of the Green Man until 1910 or thereabouts.  By 1912 a Mrs Emma Comyns is shown as the Licensee.

Why Comyns Owers name is missing from the war memorial at St Margaret’s is not known.

Martyn Lockwood

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[1] The Basra Memorial commemorates more than 40,500 members of the Commonwealth forces who died in the operations in Mesopotamia from the Autumn of 1914 to the end of August 1921 and whose graves are not known.