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George Jnr, was born in Sydney, on the 14th April 1911, to Charles Robert and Mary Jane Myrtle Lottie Fowler. His family moved to South Australia where they lived in the Iron Triangle town of Port Pirie. George’s siblings included three brothers, Charles, John and Robert and three sisters, Sylvia, Ivy Myrtyle and Dorothy (Dossie).
George attended the local Port Pirie West Public School, but his real passion was for swimming. As a 22-year-old he won the 200-yard Championship of the North at a swimming carnival held in Federal Dock. He was a swimmer with the B.H.A.S. Swimming and Lifesaving Club (Broken Hill Associated Smelters Pty Ltd) which sponsored numerous sporting codes. Despite the varied weather conditions, the club continued to operate each week, resultantly the dedicated swimmers continued to improve their times. George was one of these talented swimmers. For several years George was also a member of the Northern Champion team associated with his club.
Over the course of the ‘30’s the local Recorder reported on George, the Senior Champion, continuing to swim well, beating his best time from each previous season. George was involved in competing at various local towns, including Peterborough, Jamestown, Wallaroo, Port Broughton, Port Augusta, and Whyalla, as well as locally. In ’34 George had been part of the four-man Senior team which won the Senior Shield (owned by the Ellendale Club).
When George was 19 the family travelled to Bathurst towing their caravan. At Rocks Hill on the Orange Road, a transport lorry carrying wool overtook their car and van, clipping and overturning the van. George’s mother sustained numerous injuries including a broken thigh and two broken legs, requiring constant medical treatment for almost a year. The District Court awarded her £10 damages when the case was adjudicated the following year. Unfortunately, Mary Jane continued to experience extended illness and died in the St Vincent Hospital on the 27th October ’32. She was just 49 years old and was buried in the Catholic Section of the Bathurst Cemetery.
Almost three years later George’s father, George Snr suffered a stroke from which he never regained consciousness and died in the same hospital as Mary Jane, on the 19th August ’35. He was interred with Mary. At the time, George and his two sisters Ivy and Dorothy were living in Bathurst with their parents, but Charles had remained in Pirie.
At the start of the ’35 swimming season a prediction was made that ‘George Fowler is now in great form and should have a successful season.’ This prediction proved to be correct, with the local paper reporting at the conclusion of the season that ‘George Fowler proved the premier performer for the season. He swam from the back marks in most of the races, and richly deserved his success. At anything over 100 yards Fowler performed with striking consistency.‘ In one race, however, George started on the 20 second mark in the 400 yard race, and only narrowly losing.
As a 23-year-old, and with the Depression hitting the availability of employment, plus the added tragedy of the death of both parents, George had applied for ration relief with the Unemployment Relief Council in ‘35. Over the previous three months he had earned minimally – an amount of 10/- by working a few hours for the local butcher who had paid 2/- per day. Unfortunately, even that minimal amount had to be declared, but the Court found that he was required to show his earnings, however small. Fortunately, George’s good name and the comment by Constable Corner that there was “nothing else against defendant, who seemed a decent sort of fellow”, a minimal fine of 5/- was imposed. The magistrate commented that “He did not think that there was any deep intention on the part of defendant to do wrong, but he must remember that if the amount were only one penny it must go down. Costs amounted to £1, three days' imprisonment being ordered in default of payment. Time for payment was fixed at one month.“
The following year George trained for the National Games Carnival to be held in Adelaide. With his high level of swimming skills, the Club’s handicappers did their work well early in the season, with Robert achieving a first and two seconds, to be runner-up in the aggregate, and classed as Pirie's 1935-36 champion for being off scratch in all events.
Besides swimming, George also enjoyed the ‘Two in One’ Ball which provided both modern and old-style dancing. Having then returned to Pirie, George let his Club know that he would return to the town for the ‘Swim Through’ in March ‘39. However, with war erupting, George’s outstanding swimming career was put on hold. He had been working as a labourer when aged 29, he enlisted on the 9th July 1940 and was given the number SX8385 then allocated to the 2/48th Battalion. His early days were spent in the cold of the Pavilions, now part of the Royal Adelaide Showgrounds before the battalion headed to Woodside in the Adelaide Hills for preliminary training. Prior to embarking for overseas, he married Irene Maria with the two living in Lower Mitcham.
All too soon, George and his fellow members of the 2/48th Battalion embarked on the Stratheden for the Middle East, on the 7th November 1940, arriving on the 19th December 1940 where the Battalion completed a few months training in Cyrenaica. During those early days, the battalion settled into camps, but besides regular army duties was the need to quickly adapt to the locals. The new soldiers were soon involved in intense conflicts where the reputation of the 2/48th Battalion for being the most highly decorated but decimated battalion was earned. George was to become one of the famed Rats of Tobruk.
A fellow Pirie soldier, Bob Wilson SX2650 enlisted on the 9th May ’40 in the 27th Infantry Battalion. He sent a letter back to the Swimming Club to which he and George had belonged. It was published in the Recorder in January ’41. Whilst appreciating how the swimming club numbers had been decimated by so many young men volunteering to serve, Bob still commented “I can quite appreciate the difficulty you must be experiencing through lack of senior swimmers. Today I visited another camp not far away and there met George Fowler. He sends his regards to members. I am feeling exceptionally fit at present. Swimming facilities are not plentiful round these parts; in fact, the only dips I have had were aboard the vessel on which we travelled from Australia. "Please give my regards to all members and remember—keep the good work going among the juniors. They are your future seniors. I hope to be home again before too much water runs in and out of Federal Dock." George would have strongly agreed with these sentiments.
In August that year whilst in Dimra, George received his first fine of failing to obey a general order and was heavily fined £1. Probably because of his fitness, by November ’41, George was given special duties as a Batman to Captain Peter Robbins, a role he held until his death. His role included being a ‘right hand man’ to a commissioned officer, acting as a runner, personal driver and bodyguard as well as maintaining the officer’s personal belongings. By August that year, George, affectionally known as ‘Chuck’ he escaped with a damaged right toe when a chip fractured his big toe. Painful, but ‘Chuck’ was stoic.
Aged 31, George was killed in action in Egypt on the 31st October ’42. At that time, fierce fighting was underway in the massive assault to take Trig 29. Darren Paech in Adelaide to Alamein described how Captain Robins’ company was reduced to roughly 16 men as it approached within 50 yards of what appeared to be two low mounds with a saddle in between, believed to be Ring Contour 25. Suddenly flares whooshed up from behind one of these mounds and the survivors of D Company – lit up and caught in the open – were hit with a wall of lead. “Three Spandaus started shooting from the hump on the left and two more and a couple of 3-inch mortars from the right. At first it came in waist high, but when we went down like wet sacks, they sent the stuff skimming just over the ground,” recalled 32 year old survivor Private Cliff Thompson. The survivors had nowhere to go. It was slaughter. Captain Robbins was killed immediately along with his batman, Private George ‘Chuck’ Fowler.’
Unbeknown to Battalion Headquarters at the time, all members of D Company had either been killed (16 men) or wounded, leaving just six to carry on. Glenn wrote that the remainder were “met by a murderous fire from the mounds. D Company immediately went to ground, but the Germans swept the area where they lay in the open. Captain Peter Robbins, a very gallant soldier, was amongst the first to be hit by a Spandau bullet, which killed him instantly. ‘Chuck’ Fowler, who never left Robbins’ side, was next to fall. The remnants of the company were being cut to pieces.” Privates Doug Whyte, Arthur Wilson, Ernest S. Schubert, Sergeant Ronald Ide and Eric Montgomerie were all killed in this exposed position.”
Described in ‘Tobruk to Tarakan’ by John Glenn that day was the ‘bloodiest fighting in the history of the 2/48th Battalion’ with ‘only forty-one weary troops remaining in the field’, that night was pronounced as the climax of the Alamein Battle. Glenn’s final summing up was ‘Truly it can be said of these men, “They fought themselves and their enemy to a standstill until flesh and blood could stand no more, then they went on fighting.” ‘When next the sun drove away those shadows from the desert, death would have reaped a rich harvest of gallant men.’ This was all that remained of these proud Rats of Tobruk. In total 48 men from the 2/48th lost their lives in this battle. In added high praise about those who tended the wounded and collected those killed in action “It says much for them that not one man was missing in their search over the four thousand yards from Trig 29 to the Blockhouse, or in the attack of 3,600 yards to Ring Contour 25.” An horrific battle for the proud and very brave 2/48th Battalion.
Darren Paech in Adelaide to Alemein described how a small group from D Company went looking for the bodies of their mates who had been killed in attack on Ring Contour 25. In re-tracing their steps, they knew the German forces would have placed them in a shallow trench. The men spent ten days searching before finding their mates lying together in one grave. “We took them out and did the job properly, burying them in a row – Bill Kibby, Peter Robbins, Rod Ide, Doug Whyte, Chuck Fowler, with Eric Montgomery just behind. We couldn’t say much, but I guess we all knew , every man of us, that if it hadn’t been for Bill Kibby we might have been lying there with them’ recalled Private Cliff Thompson.
A soldier, describing the action to a war correspondent, stated: “On the night of October 30-31 our job was to cut west across Thompson’s Post, take the railway, straddle the coast road, and then work back cleaning up enemy pockets and strong posts. We straddled the road all right, and then started to work east, D Company cleaning up between the road and the sea. It was easy at first, but then we ran into real opposition. We saw a couple of lights shoot up from a there were two humps, one on the left and one on the right, with a saddle between. We got within 50 yards and then they opened fire—and how!”
As the 2/48th Battalion left the Middle East, SX6856 ‘Beau’ Jones summarised the farewell given to their fellow soldiers who would not return home. In a final, poignant and very emotional published letter to his parents, Beau wrote “I am enclosing a pamphlet that I want you to keep for me. It is the dedication service of the War Cemetery held last night, an impressive and solemn rite. The band marched at slow tempo, and the guards reversed arms. The prayers, and the thousands of troops in array presented a beautiful but sad sight. The captain, reading the names of fallen comrades, broke down and wept. You can imagine the atmosphere which prevailed. I wish that the parents of those lads could have been present. I hope to be on my way home very soon.”
Back home the names of those killed or wounded continued to appear in newspapers.
Chronicle Thursday 10 December 1942, Third List Killed In Action.— SX8385 Pte. George S. R. Fowler, Prospect; SX8344 Cpl. Ronald M. Ide, Naracoorte; SX7695 Pte. Ernest S. J. Schubert, Mt. Gambier; SX8204 Pte. Edwin W. Vivian, Mannum; Killed Accidentally. — SX9308 Pte. Lyndsay H C. Graetz, Murray Bridge.
The Pirie Recorder also paid tribute to George. “Former Pirie Swimmer Mr. Charles Fowler, of Pirie West, received advice on Saturday that his brother, Pte. George Fowler, of the A.I.F., had been killed in action in the Middle East on October 31. Before the war Pte. Fowler had spent some years in Pirie. He was most popularly known in swimming circles, for he was one of the foremost racing members of B.H.A.S. Swimming and Lifesaving Club. For some seasons he was a member of the Northern champion swimming team from that club.” They added “He was a native of New South Wales. Both his parents are dead. Not long before he enlisted he married in Adelaide Miss Irene Fowler. There is no child. He left Australia on active service about two years ago and spent many months in Tobruk before being transferred to Syria. After some time there he went back to Egypt with his unit, and there gave his life for his country. He enlisted from Adelaide.”
George was initially buried in the nearby Cemetery but in October, ’43 he and other soldiers were moved to the El Alamein War Cemetery where he now rests in Plot 16 Row C Grave 23. Immediately around him are other young soldiers. He rests with 23-year-old Corporal Eric L. Montgomerie SX948830, 31-year-old Private George S.R. Fowler SX8385 and 22-year-old Captain Peter Robbins, all from the 2/48th Battalion who died in the same battle, and others from the 2/2nd 2/15th 2/24th and 2/43rd Battalions. George’s family chose the inscription ‘Thy Will Be Done’ for his headstone.
His family continued to remember and grieve the loss of George.
Recorder Monday 30 November 1942, HERO OF THE WORLD WAR. FOWLER.-Killed in action, Middle East, on October 31, GEORGE (A.I.F.), dearly loved HUSBAND of Irene Fowler, and brother of Charlie (Pirie). Aged 29 years.
Advertiser Wednesday 2 December 1942, FOWLER.—Tribute or love and honor to dearest husband George, killed in action in Egypt, Oct. 31, Beautiful memories treasured ever. Of happy days we spent together. —His loving wife Irene. FOWLER.—Tribute to the memory of dear brother George, killed in action Egypt. Oct. 31. In silence I will remember him.—His loving sister Dossy and Joe, A.I.F., returned.
Recorder Monday 1 November 1943, FOWLER—In loving memory of George, killed in action at El Alamein, October 31, 1942. Resting in a soldier's grave, Honored with Australia's brave.—Ever remembered by Stella, Charlie, and Noel.
Researched and written by Kaye Lee, daughter of Bryan Holmes SX8133, 2/48th Battalion.