Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

“This soldier who has participated in all the engagements of his battalion since its formation has always shown conspicuous steadiness under fire & soldierly conduct. He exhibited special qualities of unselfish bravery & devotion to duty & leadership during the campaign at Lae & Finschhafen. In particular during the campaigns at the Bumi River his platoon serjeant was killed & ROWE believing him to be only wounded endeavoured to bring him in under fire abandoning the attempt only on discovering he had died. In subsequent engagements & on patrols he set an example of consistent bravery & enterprise until he was wounded while leading his section across the SONG RIVER during the advance of his unit on NONGARA.”

Edward John Rowe died recently at the Caboolture War Veterans Nursing Home. He was 87. Mr Ted Rowe was a long standing friend of Len Hansen in Mackay & over a period of years was a regular visitor to Mackay to attend 2/15th Battalion reunions. He was known to his mates in the battalion as “Wrecker” as a result of an orderly room Corporal spreading the word that Ted was writing a lot of letters to females & not knowing at the time they were his sisters & nieces. He was a Rat of Tobruk & also served at El Alamein, where he was wounded. He also served in New Guinea where he was rewarded the Military Medal for bravery in rescuing a sergeant at the Bumi River under enemy fire. Unfortunately the sergeant was dead when they reached the allied side of the river. He was again wounded in this episode with a machine gun in this episode with a machine gun burst which landed him back at Greenslope's Hospital for nine months. After his discharge in 1944 he worked in a shoe factory & in his later years as a night watchman until his retirement. He was born in Proserpine in 1906 & lived with his parents Henry & Sophie Rowe at Orchid Creek, Preston. He was the 5th of 11 children & after leaving school he did farm work & cut cane until he enlisted in the 2/15th Battalion in 1940. “Wrecker” as his mates would call him, was a very well liked & respected person, fiercely proud of his days with the 2/15th Battalion, & regularly attended all ANZAC Day marches in Brisbane until a couple of years before his death. He never married & leaves his only surviving family, his brother Arthur (Artie Rowe) who lives at Vine Creek Dingo Beach Road. Five other members of the 2/15th Battalion in the Mackay area have died recently, the last one being Dave Galvin. The others were Alf Lum Wan, Archie Andreasen & Vic Neaton.