Alexander Cowie

{{About|the English cricketer|the British squash and tennis player|Alex Cowie|the Scottish football player|George Cowie}}

{{Infobox cricketer

| name = Alexander Cowie

| image =

| country = England

| fullname = Alexander Gordon Cowie

| nickname =

| birth_date = {{birth date|1889|2|27|df=y}}

| birth_place = Hordle, Hampshire, England

| death_date = {{death date and age|1916|4|7|1889|2|27|df=y}}

| death_place = Amarah, Mesopotamia

| heightft =

| heightinch =

| batting = Right-handed

| bowling = Right-arm fast

| family =

| club1 = Cambridge University

| year1 = 1910–1911

| club2 = Hampshire

| year2 = 1910

| columns = 1

| column1 = First-class

| matches1 = 14

| runs1 = 98

| bat avg1 = 7.00

| 100s/50s1 = –/–

| top score1 = 28

| deliveries1 = 1,979

| wickets1 = 58

| bowl avg1 = 24.05

| fivefor1 = 5

| tenfor1 = –

| best bowling1 = 6/87

| catches/stumpings1 = 6/–

| date = 1 January

| year = 2010

| source = http://www.cricinfo.com/england/content/player/10847.html Cricinfo

}}

Alexander Gordon Cowie (27 February 1889 – 7 April 1916) was an English first-class cricketer, British Army officer, and a noted war poet during the First World War.

Life, cricket and war service

The son of the soldier Alexander Hugh Cowie, he was born in February 1889 at Yeatton House in Hordle, Hampshire.{{cite book|title=Final Wicket: Test and First Class Cricketers Killed in the Great War|first=Nigel|last=McCrery|publisher=Pen and Sword Books|location=Barnsley|date=2017|page=193|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6mphCgAAQBAJ|isbn=9781473827141|language=en}} Cowie was educated at Charterhouse School,{{cite book|title=Charterhouse Register, 1872-1910|first1=Frederick Kennedy Wilson|last1=Girdlestone|first2=Edward Trevor|last2=Hardman|first3=Alexander Hay|last3=Tod|publisher=Chiswick Press|date=1911|page=705|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gtbOAAAAMAAJ|language=en}} before matriculating to Caius College, Cambridge. He made his debut in first-class cricket for Cambridge University against Surrey at Fenner's. He featured six times for Cambridge in 1910, including in The University Match against Oxford at Lord's. In that same season, he also played for a combined Oxford and Cambridge Universities team against a combined Army and Navy team at Aldershot, in addition to making two appearances for Hampshire in the County Championship;{{cite web|url=https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/6/6539/First-Class_Matches.html|title=First-Class Matches played by Alexander Cowie|publisher=CricketArchive|accessdate=7 February 2024|url-access=subscription}} in his second match for Hampshire against Lancashire, he took 5 for 94 in Lancashire's first innings. The following season, he made a further three appearances for Cambridge, but did not appear in The University Match. In nine first-class matches for Cambridge, he took 43 wickets at an average of 23.25; he took four five wicket hauls, with best figures of 6 for 87.{{cite web|url=https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/6/6539/f_Bowling_by_Team.html|title=First-Class Bowling For Each Team by Alexander Cowie|publisher=CricketArchive|accessdate=7 February 2024|url-access=subscription}} Randolph Hodgson operating under the pen-name 'A County Vicar' described him as an "intimidating" bowler,{{cite magazine|author=A Country Vicar|date=21 August 1937|title=An Alarmingly Fast Bowler|url=https://magazine.cricketarchive.com/Magazine/1937/vol_xviii_no_17/10/index.html|magazine=The Cricketer|location=London|volume=18|issue=17|issn=1740-9519|access-date=28 October 2018|url-access=subscription}} with Wisden noting he was "somewhat erratic".{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zsVdAwAAQBAJ|title=Wisden on the Great War: The Lives of Cricket's Fallen 1914-1918|last=Renshaw|first=Andrew|publisher=A & C Black|location=London|pages=216–17|date=2014|isbn=9781408832356}}

Having been commissioned into the Royal Engineers Militia in December 1907,{{London Gazette|issue=28094|date=31 December 1907|page=9105}} Cowie was promoted to lieutenant with the Royal Monmouthshire Royal Engineers in January 1911,{{London Gazette|issue=28507|date=23 June 1911|page=4708}} after which he was commissioned into the regular army with the Seaforth Highlanders in December 1911.{{London Gazette|issue=28558|date=8 December 1911|page=9264}} Cowie later made two further appearances in first-class cricket for the British Army cricket team, against the Royal Navy in 1913 and Cambridge University in 1914. He served in the First World War with the Seaforth Highlanders, gaining the temporary rank of captain in June 1915 and the full rank in October of the same year.{{London Gazette|issue=29245|date=27 July 1915|page=7446}}{{London Gazette|issue=29439|date=14 January 1916|page=631}} Cowie was wounded in action in 1915, but returned to service in the Mesopotamian campaign, but later died in April 1916 from wounds sustained near Amarah. He was subsequently buried at the Amara War Cemetery. A short poem of his, titled "Lines by Captain Alexander Gordon Cowie, Seaforth Highlanders", appeared after his death in The Lotus Magazine,{{cite journal |jstor=20543786 |title=Lines by Captain Alexander Gordon Cowie, Seaforth Highlanders (Died of Wounds) |last1=Cowie |first1=Alexander Gordon |journal=The Lotus Magazine |date=1916 |volume=8 |issue=2 |page=92 }} and has since been anthologized in books of war poetry.{{cite web|title=First World War Centenary Poetry Collection|url=https://librivox.org/ww1-poetry/|website=www.librivox.org|accessdate=28 October 2018}} As a 22-year-old, he was described as "a writer of poems of great beauty".{{cite journal|author1=George Dawes Hicks|author2=Lawrence Pearsall Jacks|date=1918|title=War Poets|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_r0NAQAAIAAJ|journal=The Hibbert Journal|volume=16|page=407|access-date=7 February 2024}}