Harry Dowell was a member of the “Signallers” soccer team which played a series of games against a Brisbane select team in mid-1916. Formed out of the Depot Signal Company, the team was based in the Brisbane suburb of Chermside. It was made up of players from across the state who had been selected for signalling training.
Dowell was 29 when he enlisted, and it is unknown how long he had been living in Australia. Born in Dudley, Staffordshire, his name on the UK census was Silas H. Dowell. He enlisted under the name Harry, though it seems this was a nickname of Henry.
It is uncertain if and where he played soccer in Australia before his enlistment, though it appears he had been based in regional Queensland. Dowell caught a volunteers’ train in Bowen in February 1916 and enlisted in Brisbane three days later. He reached England in December, and onto France with the 9th Battalion the next February.
His active service was interrupted by injury. Dowell was accidentally wounded in June 1917, with the injury classed as “traumatic contusion of nose and shoulder.” A Lieutenant Mullen confirmed Dowell was not at fault, and that the accident happened while on parade in the field. Dowell returned to his unit in October but was shot in the left foot a week later. He was evacuated to England and sent back to Australia in early 1918.
He returned to Queensland. Not much is known of his life until he died in Queensland in 1956.