Andrew Dowrick

Andrew was born 1879 in Probus, the son of Richard & Louisa.  His father was a stone mason, and Andrew was to follow in the same trade, later described as a “skilled” stone mason. He had to travel for employment, and in the 1901 and 1911 census’, he is living at separate address in Falmouth.  His family lived at addresses along Tregony Road, the address given on Andrew’s service records being that for “Rock Cottage, Probus”. 

 

Andrew married at the age of 26, to Mary Ann Jacob, on 10th June 1905.  They were married at Probus Parish Church, by the Vicar at that time the Reverend C. Fox Harvey.  Mary Ann was the daughter of a fellow stone mason, so it can be guessed as to how the couple met. Their daughter Vera Louisa was born on 11 May 1906.  Sadly Mary Ann was to die within the year at the age of 28, in March 1907.  She was buried on 17 March, at the Parish Church she had been married in only two years before, leaving Andrew a widower. 

 

Not long after the outbreak of the First World War, Andrew travelled to St Austell to enlist, on 11th May 1915.  His skills as a stone mason were abilities required by the Royal Engineers, and so he initially enlisted into the 98th Field Coy, RE.  He later transferred to the 104th Field Coy. He left his nine year old daughter under the guardianship of his sister Charlotte, who was living at this time at Rock Cottage.  He was promptly made a Lance Corporal on 10th September 1915, and embarked for the BEF (British Expeditionary Force) in France on 5th December, arriving the following day. 

 

Corporal Dowrick appears to have served on the Western Front with very few breaks; there is one brief period of leave recorded for the 6th – 16th January, 1917.  This may have been his last leave. 

 

The German Spring Offensive (or the Ludendorff Offensive) of 21st March 1918.

 

The spring offensive of March 1918 was the Kaiser’s last throw of the dice, if he wanted to achieve a victory.  He needed to break the deadlock before American forces (now a participant in the conflict) could reach France.  And he had numbers on his side: fifty German divisions had been freed from the Eastern Front after the withdrawal of Russia from the war, which had been bought about by the revolutions of 1917.  This offensive then was also known as ‘The Kaiser’s Battle.’

 

It opened at 4.40am on the 21st March, with the largest bombardment of the war spread over an area of 150 sq miles.  It was aimed fully at the British sector, in particular the Fifth Army.  Over 1 million shells were fired in the first five hours.  The ferocity of the assault rolled the British line back, in the biggest advance the Germans had made since 1914.  By the end of the first day, the British forces had lost over 7,000 dead, with over 10,000 wounded. 

 

Corporal Dowrick was initially reported as ‘missing,’ on 22nd March.  It later transpired that he had been wounded by a shell splinter to the abdomen, and then taken prisoner by the rapidly advancing German infantry.  He was removed eventually to Reserve Hospital, Wittenburg, in Germany.  Andrew was well enough to have sent an official postcard to his sister Charlotte, informing her that he was a POW.  It seems that he made no mention of his wounds.   However, to these wounds he eventually succumbed, dying at the hospital on the 10th May. 

 

Andrew Dowrick is buried at the Berlin South Western Cemetery, Brandenburg, Germany.  It holds 1,173 war dead.  He left all his possessions to his sister Charlotte, in trust for his young daughter.

 

There is a little footnote to this story: Andrew and Mary Ann’s daughter, Vera Louisa, went on to live a full life.  She married in 1934, and died in 2005 at the grand old age of 99 years.