Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Jack was the first child born on the 20th January 1915 to Johanna Rose (nee Bollard) and John Bowman. He was the third generation of his family to live in Port Augusta with his grandparents being early pioneers in the district. Two months before Jack’s sixth birthday, his father died in the Port Augusta Hospital in November ’21, having been unwell for several years. Johanna had her four children, Jack, Kevin William, James (Jim) and baby Joyce, born at the end of August that year, to look after and raise.
Jack attended the local Port Augusta School where he attained his Qualifying Certificate in ’29, enabling him to continue with Higher Primary Classes at Clare. Johanna and the family moved to Corryton (now Kensington Gardens) where further tragedy struck with the sudden death of 15-year-old Joyce in March ’37. She was buried alongside her father, in Port Augusta.
Jack gained work as a farm hand, including stint as a drover, but with the outbreak of WWII he and his two brothers all enlisted to serve. 22-year-old Kevin was the first to enlist on the 28th May 1940 as SX3788 and served with the 2/4th Field regiment. 25-year-old Jack soon followed on the 25th November that year and was given the number SX10338, initially being placed in the 2/48th Battalion. The third brother, James Richard Bollard Bowman enlisted on the 16th February ’43 as PA1496 in the Navy with HMAS Cerberus. However, an old head injury contributed to his early discharge in June that year.
Jack’s early training was at Terowie in the mid-north, where the conditions were designed to approximate those the new soldiers would face in the Middle East. Following pre-embarkation leave, Jack embarked for overseas, with the temporary rank of Corporal for the voyage. He was to become one of the famed and highly respected Rats of Tobruk. The term was initially designed by German strategists to demoralize the troops who were living in primitive conditions, burrowed into the desert sand, like rats. Ironically, the men quickly claimed the term as a badge of honour.
Just days prior to Christmas in ’41, Jack managed a transfer to his brother, Kevin’s 2/4th Field Regiment and was soon serving in India. A series of illnesses contributed to Jack’s poor health, including anxiety neurosis, heart failure and bronchitis, the latter two while returning to Australia by sea.
In December ’43 he was wounded in action with a gunshot wound to his right shoulder which eventually contributed to his discharge in July the following year.
He and Viola Wanda Fiebig of Nuriootpa married in St Paul’s Church, Tanunda in December ’44. Jack chose his younger brother, Jim as his groomsman. Prior to the wedding Viola was given a surprise kitchen evening, which also included the playing of the very popular euchre.
Residing at Netherby, aged 70, Jack died on the 25th February 1985. His remains now lie in Centennial Park Cemetery in the Lutheran Lawn Path 18 Plot 491. Viola lived a long life until aged 94 she died on the 8th January 2007. Jack’s two brothers are both remembered in the Garden of Remembrance.
Researched and written by Kaye Lee, daughter of Bryan Holmes SX8133, 2/48th Battalion.