Lieutenant-Colonel Carlos Bovill

OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(1882 – 1938) was an officer in the Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA) who was attached to the

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(RFC) in World War I in the No. 1 Kite Balloon Squadron.

Early life

Bovill was born in

Godalming Godalming is a market town and civil parish in southwest Surrey, England, around southwest of central London. It is in the Borough of Waverley, at the confluence of the Rivers Wey and Ock. The civil parish covers and includes the settleme ...

on 21 October 1882, the eldest son of Alfred Bovill, a corn merchant, and his wife Jessie Amelia Clarke. His parents divorced in 1897; in 1898 Jessie was remarried to the Hon. Richard Cecil Grosvenor, youngest son of Richard Grosvenor, 1st Baron Ebury. Bovill was educated at St. David's school, Reigate, and Eton College (1896-1901). He served in the Eton Volunteers as a Sergeant in the 4th Volunteer or Territorial Battalion,

Oxfordshire Light Infantry The Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry was a light infantry regiment of the British Army that existed from 1881 until 1958, serving in the Second Boer War, World War I and World War II. The regiment was formed as a consequence of th ...

Career

In 1900 he was commissioned as a

second lieutenant Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces, comparable to NATO OF-1 rank. Australia The rank of second lieutenant existed in the military forces of the Australian colonies and Australian Army until ...

in the Lancashire Artillery Militia. He was then posted to

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and India (until 1911), when he returned to England. In 1914 he was promoted to captain in the Royal Garrison Artillery where he was an artillery observer in No. 6 Squadron Royal Flying Corps. In 1915 he qualified as an observer. He was a General Staff Officer in the RGA between April 1915 to October 1916. During the

Battle of the Somme The Battle of the Somme ( French: Bataille de la Somme), also known as the Somme offensive, was a battle of the First World War fought by the armies of the British Empire and French Third Republic against the German Empire. It took place bet ...

in 1916 he commanded No. 1 Kite Balloon Squadron. He was promoted to Major in the RFC and as temporary Lieutenant-Colonel in September 1916. In September 1916 he went to the Kite Balloon Training School, which was based at the

Royal Naval Air Service The Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) was the air arm of the Royal Navy, under the direction of the Admiralty's Air Department, and existed formally from 1 July 1914 to 1 April 1918, when it was merged with the British Army's Royal Flying Corps t ...

(RNAS) in Roehampton, to obtain his Balloon Officer qualification. At the end of 1916 until 1918 he was based in Egypt, finally commanded the 6th Balloon Wing in the Middle East. He obtained his pilot wings in October 1918 with the No 5 Fighting School at Heliopolis. At the end of the war, he returned to the Royal Garrison Artillery as Lieutenant-Colonel and left the army in January 1920. He was appointed

'In recognition of distinguished services rendered during the War' in the

1919 Birthday Honours (OBE) This is a list of Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) awards in the 1919 Birthday Honours. The 1919 Birthday Honours were appointments by King George V to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of ...

. He was made an Officer of the Ordre de St. Saveur (Order of the Redeemer) by Alexander of Greece.

Personal life

He married Victoria Eleanor Joan Ley (1880-1957) on 22 April 1909 at St Mary Abbots,

Kensington Kensington is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in the West End of London, West of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up b ...

. He died on 20 March 1938 in Chelsea, London. His funeral was held at Golders Green Crematorium. He is commemorated at

St Andrew's Church, Ham St Andrew's Church, Ham, is a Grade II listed Church of England church on Church Road, Ham Common in Ham in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. Architecture The church was built in grey brick in 1830–31; the architect was Edward Lapi ...

, on the headstone for his eldest son, Julian (1912-1919), along with his second son, Geoffrey Carlos (1920-1942), and his wife. The family had lived at Gordon House on Ham Common, London, after the war.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bovill, Carlos 1882 births 1938 deaths Burials at St Andrew's Church, Ham British balloonists Royal Flying Corps officers People educated at Eton College People from Godalming Officers of the Order of the British Empire Volunteer Force soldiers Lancashire Militia officers Military personnel from Surrey British Army personnel of World War I Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry soldiers Royal Garrison Artillery officers 19th-century British Army personnel