Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

William Henry “Harry” Bowler.
AIF Service # 2526
5th Reinforcement/39th Battalion
Enlisted 28 June 1916
Age: 21
Occupation: farmer
Height: 5” 8 &1/2’ (174 cm)
Weight 148 lb. (67 kg)
Eyes: light brown
Hair: fair


This biography was written as an assignment as part of a UTAS (University of Tasmania) Diploma of Family History unit on Families and War. Harry was my first cousin 3 x removed. If you are related, I’m interested in making contact - Lyn Smith

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William Henry “Harry” Bowler was born in Congleton, Cheshire, England, on 18 June 1895 to Josiah Bowler and his wife, Mary Ellen Cotterill. Harry was their second son and fourth child. Harry emigrated to Australia at the age of 15 years (1910-1911). The family settled at Tarengo, Boorowa, NSW (100 km NW of Canberra) in the early 1910s.

Harry was farming with his father at “Caboose”, Tarengo, when “Billy” Hughes declared that Australia had entered the war, on 6 August 1914. However, he did not enlist until 28 June 1916. The timing of his enlistment initially confused me until I looked at Harry’s WW1 embarkation record. While viewing this list, I noticed a related entry just a few lines above. Thomas Edward Bowler (Harry’s cousin), aged 37, had enlisted in the same Battalion. Their service numbers were only 3 digits apart. They both lived in Boorowa and both enlisted at Cootamundra.

Before leaving Australia, Harry and Thomas trained at Kiama, on the New South Wales south coast. After 4 months of training, they departed Sydney on 9 November 1916 as part of the 5th reinforcement, 39th Infantry Battalion, Australian Imperial Force (AIF). They travelled on the HMAT (His Majesty’s Australian Transport) ship “Benalla” (A24), bound for England. After leaving Sydney, the Benalla called at Durban, Cape Town, Freetown (Sierra Leone) and Dakar (Senegal). It reached its final destination, Devonport, England, on 9 January 1917. The Benalla’s journal states the 5th were transported to the AIF training grounds, Amesbury, on the Salisbury Plains, in Wiltshire. From there, the ‘boys’ of the 36th completed 3 additional months of training at Lark Hill, HQ of the 3rd Division of the AIF (which included the 10th Brigade/39th Battalion).

Very soon after arriving in England Harry became ill with bronchitis. This occurred during the wettest and coldest winter that many could remember. “Following the end of the Battle of the Somme, it had rained, sleeted and snowed continuously for over 8 weeks.” Although he did not experience the extremes of the weather, like the soldiers in the trenches, the poor construction of the accommodation at Salisbury (tents and corrugated iron huts) still meant he was exposed to extreme cold.

After his Salisbury training, Harry was sent to the Western Front on 10 April 1917. After leaving Folkestone, the reinforcement landed at Calais. It marched to Étaples on the first day, arriving at his unit the following day. The area where Harry initially served was around Ploegesteert Wood “(a scene of intense fighting in late 1914 and early 1916, but by the time Harry arrived there, Ploegesteert Wood became a quiet sector where no major action took place). Units were sent here to recuperate and retrain after tougher fighting elsewhere and before returning to participate in more active operations.”

The most important event that Harry was possibly involved in was part of the Battle of Messines in June 1917. He appears to have been with his unit when they were engaged as part of ‘Magnum Opus’ on 7 June 1917, even though he had been in hospital with bronchitis just a week beforehand. The British and Empire soldiers (including the 39th) had been secretly tunnelling under the German lines. They then packed these tunnels with explosives and, at 3:10 a.m. on 7 June 1917, detonated the explosives. The NZ Herald reported that “10,000 German soldiers were killed and 80,000 were injured that night in what was the largest non-nuclear explosion in history”.

Harry seems to have been in and out of hospital from 29 May 1917 for one or two days at a time, each time diagnosed with bronchitis. However, he appears to have returned to his unit when he was not hospitalised. On 11 June 1917, he was taken to the 2nd Australian Casualty Clearing Station (ACCS), then to the 3rd Divisional Rest Station (DRS). He was then transferred to the 2nd Australian General Hospital at Wimereux, near Bologne. From there, on 15 June 1917, he was invalided back to England aboard the Hospital Ship ‘Jan Breydel’, and admitted to the Fort Pitt Military Hospital in Chatham London, with ongoing bronchitis and (postscript) Valvular Disease of the Heart (VDH). On 9 July 1917, his father was advised by telegram that Harry was sick.

His medical report from the Australian Command depot at Weymouth (dated 2 September 1917) is his next record and states that Harry “had been unwell for more than 6 months”. The location of Weymouth and the notation of being unfit for 6 months is important. “Those not expected to be fit within six months were sent to Weymouth, in preparation for repatriation and return to Australia.” His chronic bronchitis had made him permanently unfit for service, and he was being prepared to be sent back to Australia. By September 1917, the Drs were also questioning if he was asthmatic. There is a possibility that he had been affected by poisonous gas, in April 1917, as gas exposure was mentioned in May 1917 39th War Diary.

There is confusion about the actual date when he was discharged. The Australian War Memorial (AWM) database states that he was discharged on 17 October 1917. Medical records state that he left England on the HMAT SS ‘Port Lyttleton on 19 October 1917. However, in his service records, the invalid and returned soldier’s card stated that he was discharged on 16 December 1917 after disembarking in Australia. His casualty card states he was admitted to the 4th Australian General Hospital (AGH) in Randwick, Sydney, on 4 January 1918 and stayed for 5 days. His medical report from the 4th AGH then states that he was discharged on 24 January 1918 after further medical investigations.

Harry’s obituary stated that he went back to Boorowa, after the wat and he seems to have stayed in the area until his death in 1951. He went on to be a loved and respected “pillar of the community”. Harry’s name is listed on the local war memorial in Boorowa township, along with the 345 other locals, from the Burrowa district, who served in WW1. His occupation from 1918 - 1951 is always listed as a farmer, but he dabbled in wheat, oats, dairy and sheep farming. He married Kathleen Buck (a local nurse), in Boorowa, in June 1924 and they had 2 children. His son predeceased him (unmarried) in 1946, therefore, his only descendants are those of his daughter, Phyllis (Mrs C.P. Cassidy). Harry was also known to have enlisted in the Civilian Military Forces reserve during WW2 - service number N386788