BOWRING, John Ernest Pushman (1876-1917) War Service 1914-1918) wiki.JPG)
J E P Bowring (GC War Service)
John Ernest Pushman Bowring was born in Hawthorn on 11 July 1876, the eldest son of John Charles Bowring and Hannah Mary ‘Minnie’ nee Millard, and attended the College in 1888 and 1889. He was enrolled by John Bowring Esq of Geelong.
The Geelong College Annual Reports list him as receiving the following academic awards:
1888, 1st, Scripture, 2nd Class.
1888, 1st, Geography, 2nd Class.
1889, 1st, Scripture, 3rd Class.
1889, 1st, English, 3rd Class.
1889, 1st, Geography, 3rd Class.
He served with the New South Wales Mounted Rifles in the Anglo-South African War, and was awarded the Queen’s Medal with four Bars. On his return from South Africa he married Margaret Marcella Murray at West Wyalong NSW in 1903. He was a draper in Latrobe, Tasmania, at the time of his enlistment (No 548) in the AIF during World War I on 13 March 1916.
He embarked from Hobart on
HMAT A35 Berrima on 1 July, 1916 with 40 Battalion for France. He was promoted to Sergeant, but was killed in action on 7 June 1917 at Messines, in what proved to be a black day for the Fighting Fortieth, as they lost thirty-nine men, principally Tasmanians.
The
Weekly Courier of 5 July, 1917 reported his death:
‘The Rev N C Higgs, of Latrobe, had the very painful duty of conveying the sad news to Mrs Bowring, Latrobe, that her husband, Sergeant John Ernest P Bowring, had been killed in action in France on June 7. For a number of years he had been manager of the drapery department of W L Wells and Sons Ltd, Latrobe. He was a man that was highly respected, and was a great favourite with all who knew him’ John Bowring has no known grave, his name is commemorated on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial.
Sources: 'Geelong Collegians at the Great War' compiled by J Affleck. pp11-13 (citing C E W Bean, The Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-1918: Vol. IV The AIF in France 1917; Commonwealth War Graves Commission; Weekly Courier 5 July 1917; Australian War Memorial; Photo The Weekly Courier (Tasmanian State Library).)