George James Bowden MC (17 March 1888 – 8 June 1962) was an Australian soldier and politician.

Early life

Bowden was born at

Moyhu, Victoria Moyhu is a small town in North East Victoria, Australia. It is situated in the fertile King Valley, near the King River, which flows from the Victorian Alps and joins the Ovens River in Wangaratta. The town is about 2.5 hours drive from Melb ...

to farmer William Henry Bowden and Catherine Christina, née McCalman. He attended the Whitfield and

Benalla Benalla is a small city located on the Broken River gateway to the High Country north-eastern region of Victoria, Australia, about north east of the state capital Melbourne. At the the population was 10,822. It is the administrative centr ...

state schools before becoming a commission agent. He enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on 6 March 1915, in which he rose to captain by 1918. Wounded at

Gallipoli The Gallipoli peninsula (; tr, Gelibolu Yarımadası; grc, Χερσόνησος της Καλλίπολης, ) is located in the southern part of East Thrace, the European part of Turkey, with the Aegean Sea to the west and the Dardanelles ...

and the Western Front (where he was also gassed), Bowden was awarded the

Military Cross The Military Cross (MC) is the third-level (second-level pre-1993) military decoration awarded to officers and (since 1993) other ranks of the British Armed Forces, and formerly awarded to officers of other Commonwealth countries. The MC i ...

in 1918 with particular reference to his daring at the

Battle of Mont St Quentin The Battle of Mont Saint-Quentin was a battle on the Western Front during World War I. As part of the Allied Hundred Days Offensive on the Western Front in the late summer of 1918, the Australian Corps crossed the Somme River on the night of 31 ...

Party politics

On his return to Australia in 1919, Bowden farmed at

Koo Wee Rup Koo Wee Rup is a town and satellite suburb in Victoria, Australia, 63 km south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the Shire of Cardinia local government area. Built on former marshland now converted to market ...

Gippsland Gippsland is a rural region that makes up the southeastern part of Victoria, Australia, mostly comprising the coastal plains to the rainward (southern) side of the Victorian Alps (the southernmost section of the Great Dividing Range). It covers ...

. He joined the Country Party in 1923, was elected to Cranbourne Shire Council in 1928 (serving until 1938) and was an unsuccessful candidate for the

Victorian Legislative Assembly The Victorian Legislative Assembly is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Victoria in Australia; the upper house being the Victorian Legislative Council. Both houses sit at Parliament House in Spring Street, Melbourne. The presiding ...

seat of Mornington in 1935 and 1937. In the conflict between the Victorian and federal branches of the Country Party over

John McEwen Sir John McEwen, (29 March 1900 – 20 November 1980) was an Australian politician who served as the 18th prime minister of Australia, holding office from 1967 to 1968 in a caretaker capacity after the disappearance of Harold Holt. He was the ...

's decision to support the

United Australia Party The United Australia Party (UAP) was an Australian political party that was founded in 1931 and dissolved in 1945. The party won four federal elections in that time, usually governing in coalition with the Country Party. It provided two prim ...

Government, Bowden was a staunch supporter of McEwen; he also supported Albert Hocking against

Premier Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier. A premier will normally be a head of governm ...

Sir

Albert Dunstan Sir Albert Arthur Dunstan, KCMG (26 July 1882 – 14 April 1950) was an Australian politician. A member of the Country Party (now National Party), Dunstan was the 33rd premier of Victoria. His term as premier was the second-longest in th ...

in a dispute over the attempts by the executive to influence the State party. Although President of the Victorian United Country Party from 1940 to 1943, Bowden was not instrumental in the restoration of unity between the branches due to his military commitments during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. He served overseas, but was transferred to the Reserve of Officers in December and was chosen as the Country Party candidate to replace

Thomas Paterson Thomas Paterson (20 November 1882 – 24 January 1952) was an Australian politician who served as deputy leader of the Country Party from 1929 to 1937. He held ministerial office in the governments of Stanley Bruce and Joseph Lyons, represent ...

in the

Australian House of Representatives The House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the upper house being the Senate. Its composition and powers are established in Chapter I of the Constitution of Australia. The term of members of the ...

seat of

Federal politics

With Paterson's support, Bowden won Gippsland in

1943 Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January 1 – WWII: The Soviet Union announces that 22 German divisions have been encircled at Stalingrad, with 175,000 killed and 137,650 captured. * January 4 – ...

by a narrow majority, and held it until his retirement in 1961, during which time the seat returned to a safe Country Party stronghold. Although never entering the cabinet, he served as chairman of committees from 1959 to 1961. Bowden never married, and his health deteriorated in his later years, largely due to his war wounds. Cared for by his sister, he died at

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...

on 8 June 1962. He was buried in the

Cheltenham Cheltenham (), also known as Cheltenham Spa, is a spa town and borough on the edge of the Cotswolds in the county of Gloucestershire, England. Cheltenham became known as a health and holiday spa town resort, following the discovery of mineral s ...

Memorial Park (Wangara Road).

References

External links

Friends of Cheltenham and Regional Cemeteries Inc.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bowden, George 1888 births 1962 deaths National Party of Australia members of the Parliament of Australia Members of the Australian House of Representatives Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Gippsland 20th-century Australian politicians