Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bowater, Edward
BOWATER, Sir EDWARD (1787–1861), lieutenant-general and colonel 49th foot from 1846, was descended from a respectable Coventry family, members of which were established in London and at Woolwich during the last century. From one of the latter, a landowner of considerable wealth, the government purchased most of the freehold sites since occupied by the artillery and other barracks, the military repository grounds, &c. at Woolwich. Sir Edward was the only son of Admiral Edward Bowater, of Hampton Court, by his wife Louisa, daughter of Thomas Lane and widow of G. E. Hawkins, sergeant-surgeon to King George III. He was born in St. James's Palace on 13 July 1787, educated at Harrow, and entered the army in 1804 as ensign in the 3rd foot guards, with which he served in the Peninsula from December 1808 to November 1809, in the Peninsula and south of France from December 1811 to the end of the war, and in the Waterloo campaign. He was present at the passage of the Douro, the capture of Oporto, the battles of Talavera, Salamanca, and Vittoria, the sieges of Burgos and San Sebastian, the passage of the Bidassoa, and the battles of Quatre Bras and Waterloo, and was wounded at Talavera and at Waterloo. In 1837 he left the Scots Fusilier guards, after thirty-three years' service therein, on promotion to the rank of major-general. In 1839 he married Mary, daughter of the late M. Barne, sometime M.P. for the since disfranchised borough of Dunwich. Soon after the arrival of the prince consort, Bowater was appointed his equerry, and in 1846 he became lieutenant-general and groom in waiting in ordinary to Queen Victoria, and in 1854 was promoted full general. In 1861 the queen's youngest son, Prince Leopold, afterwards Duke of Albany, then a child eight years old, accompanied Sir Edward and Lady Bowater and their daughter to the south of France. While there Bowater, whose health had been failing, died at Cannes, aged 73, on 14 Dec. 1861, the day of the prince consort's death.
[Miscel. Gen. et Heral., new series, ii. 177–9 (pedigree); Hart's Army Lists, Ann. Reg. 1862; Gent. Mag. 1862, i. 109; Martin's Life of Prince Consort, v. 405, 417.]
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.33
N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 39 | ii | 27 f.e. | Bowater, Sir Edward: for lieutenant-general read general |
| 26 f.e. | after foot insert from 1846 | ||
| 40 | i | 10 | before groom insert lieutenant-general and and after queen insert and in 1854 full general |