Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

From How We Served
 
The final resting place for; - V83912 Sergeant George Vernon Bowles of Norfolk, England & East St. Kilda, Victoria, had served with the Royal Field Artillery of the 1st British Expeditionary Force during World War One in Northern France and Belgium.

Following the end of hostilities in November 1918, George immigrated to Australia to begin a new life in the decades of Peace that followed.

With the outbreak of a Second World War, George, now employed as a business manager, again presented himself for War Service, enlisting with the Australian Military Forces on the 29th of April 1940, and was accepted for fulltime duty.

Allocated to Headquarters Southern Command, before being posted to 2nd Recruit Reception Depot, with which he would remain until he was detached for duty with Headquarters Victorian Lines of Communication in late December 1942.

Whilst with this Unit George was posted to the Land Headquarters Military History Section, with which he was appointed to Staff Duties. George’s service with this Unit would be continuous, aside period of hospitalization, after which he would recover and be returned to duty.

By the 30th of December 1944, George was promoted to Sergeant, and was still serving with the Military History Section, when his health again broke down. George was admitted into the 115th Australian General Hospital (Heidelberg) on the 3rd of April 1945, and whilst still under the treatment of this hospital, he succumbed to illness on the 19th of May 1945, at the senior age of 57.

Following his death whilst on War Service, Sergeant George Bowles a British veteran of the trenches of the ‘Great War’, and who had re-enlisted for full time duty in the Second World War, with his newly adopted country, was formally interred within Springvale War Cemetery, Victoria.