Lawrence G. Bowden (May 11, 1919–September 26, 1944)

16th Cavalry Quartermaster Squadron, Headquarters Troop, 1st Cavalry Division

By Sian Heetai and Isabella Love

Early Life

Lawrence Gordon Bowden was born in Toronto, ON on May 11, 1919, to Gordon Bowden and Edith Bowden (née Pennell).¹ Lawrence’s father Gordon, born in London, UK on August 8, 1894, served in the Canadian Overseas Expeditionary Force during World War I, enlisting in Toronto on November 9, 1915. Lawrence’s mother Edith was born in York, ON, today part of Toronto, on January 7, 1896.² On May 22, 1918, Gordon and Edith married in York.³ By 1921, the couple had three children: Lawrence, a daughter Ruth Evelyn, born on May 3, 1920, and another son John Julian, born on May 18, 1921. Living in Toronto in 1921, Lawrence’s father worked as an accountant.⁴ The family grew with the birth of a third son, Norman Ralph on February 19, 1924.⁵

Manifest of Lawrence's Border Crossing into the US

In the mid to late nineteenth century, many immigrants came to the US via the Canadian border during a time with little to no immigration inspection by US officials; meaning these immigrants have no immigration record. By 1894, the US created mechanisms to document these crossings from Canada. When Lawrence’s family immigrated to the US on December 9, 1925, a border crossing manifest documented their entry, as seen here. Lawrence was six years old when his family entered the US at Detroit, MI.⁶ His father, Gordon, declared their destination as Jacksonville, FL with the goal to seek work there.⁷ The Bowdens may have been recruited to come to Florida by an employment agency or they heard about opportunities there through a network of family or friends. During the 1920s, Canadians migrated to Florida, attracted both by the climate and the frenzy of the land boom. Even with the end of Florida’s land boom and the Wall Street Crash of 1929 that brought about the Great Depression, Florida’s Canadian population grew from 4,121 in 1920 to 8,156 in 1930. Many of these Canadian migrants like the Bowdens came from the English-speaking province of Ontario.⁸

Lawrence Bowden, 1939 Yearbook, Landon High School (Jacksonville)

In Jacksonville in 1930, Lawrence’s father Gordon supported the family by working as a manager for a hardware company.⁹ On December 28, 1934, Gordon submitted his Declaration of Intention application (first papers) to become a US citizen with the US District Court in Jacksonville. On December 17, 1937, after submitting his Petition for Naturalization, he took an oath of allegiance to the US and soon afterward, he received his certificate of US citizenship.¹⁰ Gordon’s naturalization allowed Lawrence and his siblings to become naturalized US citizens through derivative citizenship.¹¹ During his senior year of high school at Landon High in Jacksonville in 1939, Lawrence, pictured here, participated in the Library Council, Glee Club, and played football.¹² The Bowdens endured the hardships of the Great Depression and by 1940, the family still lived in Jacksonville in a home owned by Lawrence’s father, who worked as a salesman in a hardware store. Lawrence, now twenty-one, did general office work, likely for the Ploof Transfer Company where he worked when he registered for the military draft.¹³ In its early days, the company used mules and wagons to transport construction materials locally, but as the business grew and modernized, it abandoned wagons in favor of truck tractors and trailers.¹⁴

Military Service

On October 16, 1940, over sixteen million American men between the ages of twenty-one and thirty-five registered for the nation’s first peacetime draft. Lawrence fulfilled his duty in Jacksonville. After he registered, Lawrence continued to work for H.C. Ploof, owner of the Ploof Transfer Company.¹⁵ Lawrence enlisted into the US Army on June 16, 1941, at Camp Blanding, near Starke, FL.¹⁶

After completing his initial training, Lawrence became a quartermaster.¹⁷ Quartermasters handled the logistics, supply, food, and finances for their unit. The role of the quartermaster was a vital part of the war effort that is often misinterpreted to be less dangerous than other roles in the military. However, they provided essential supplies and services, often risking life and wellbeing to transport supplies to the front.¹⁸ As a quartermaster, Lawrence joined the 16th Cavalry Quartermaster Squadron, Headquarters Troop, 1st Cavalry Division.¹⁹ He and his squadron ensured that the troops of the 1st Cavalry Division had everything they needed to carry out their mission.

Prior to the US joining World War II, the 1st Cavalry Division operated out of Fort Bliss, TX. As war loomed on the horizon, the division conducted training exercises throughout the US.²⁰ Most likely during a gap between these exercises, Lawrence joined the 1st Cavalry Division while it was back at Fort Bliss in late-1941 or early-1942. During the summer of 1942, the division participated in VIII Corps’ Louisiana Maneuvers near Mansfield, LA. It returned to Fort Bliss in September of 1942, where it continued training, until it departed for Camp Stoneman, CA in mid-1943.²¹ Camp Stoneman, near San Francisco, CA, served as a major staging point for soldiers who deployed to the Pacific Theater. When he departed for Australia on June 26, 1943, Lawrence, like millions of other soldiers who left that camp, passed under a sixteen foot sign which read, “Through this portal pass the best damn soldiers in the world.”²²

Lawrence and the 1st Cavalry Division arrived in Australia on July 26, 1943. In the months that followed, the division conducted jungle warfare and amphibious landing training. On December 19, 1943, the 1st Cavalry Division sent its 2nd Cavalry Brigade 1,300 miles north to Oro Bay, New Guinea. The brigade’s mission was to set up a training and staging area for the division's planned campaign in the Admiralty Islands.²³ The Admiraites are a small group of islands about 450 miles north of Oro Bay. General Douglas MacArthur, Commander-in-Chief of the Southwest Pacific Area, directed the 1st Cavalry Division to gain control of the islands from the Japanese as part of the larger New Guinea Campaign.²⁴ By February 25, 1944, the rest of the division joined the 2nd Cavalry Brigade and formal training for the campaign began.²⁵

D-Day for the amphibious assault of the Admiralties was set for April 1, 1944. However, after General MacArthur received intelligence of a Japanese evacuation of the islands, he moved the landing up to February 29. Elements of the 1st Cavalry Division began the invasion with a landing on Los Negros Island. Despite the intelligence reports, the Japanese had not evacuated the Admiralties and intense fighting ensued.²⁶ US forces secured the Admiralties, including the chain’s largest island of Manus, on May 18, 1944.²⁷ With the Admiralties and the larger New Guinea area wrested from Japanese control, US forces had a path to liberate the Philippines.²⁸

Lawrence and the 1st Cavalry Division remained on Manus and trained for its mission in the Philippines.²⁹ In August of 1944, Lawrence was admitted to a field hospital on Manus. His doctors diagnosed him with malaria.³⁰ In the Pacific, more troops became casualties due to malaria than by enemy action. Individuals could suffer repeated bouts of the disease; marked by fever, chills, muscle aches, and weight loss. Troops with malaria could also simultaneously suffer from other tropical diseases, such as dysentery and beriberi.³¹ In Lawrence’s case, granulocytopenia and lobar pneumonia complicated his bout with malaria. On September 26, 1944, Lawrence G. Bowden died from these diseases.³²

Legacy

The 16th Cavalry Quartermaster Squadron has a memorial plaque in the National Museum of the Pacific War in Fredericksburg, TX.³³ Originally, Lawrence was buried in the USAF Cemetery, Finschhafen No. 2 in British New Guinea (now Papua New Guinea).³⁴ In 1945, the US Government began the Return of the World War II Dead Program. The program returned soldiers, many buried in temporary cemeteries back closer to their families for burial. The program took many years to complete.³⁵ By 1949, Lawrence’s body was returned to the US, and on February 15, 1949, he was reinterred at St. Augustine National Cemetery, FL to be closer to his family in Jacksonville. Lawrence now rests among his fellow Veterans in Section D, Grave 93.³⁶ Lawrence’s brothers John, who went by Jack, and Norman followed in his footsteps in military service. Jack enlisted in the US Army on October 12, 1942, and served until February 18, 1946, while Norman enlisted in the US Navy on April 25, 1943, and served until August 25, 1946.³⁷

In 1950, Lawrence’s family continued to live in Jacksonville. His parents Gordon and Edith along with his younger brother Jack lived in one household. Gordon worked as a manager of a retail book business with Edith as the assistant manager. Jack worked as a shipping clerk for a company that provided wholesale manufacturing of dry kiln lumber.³⁸ Lawrence’s younger sister lived in another household working as a clerical worker for the Internal Revenue Service.³⁹ Lawrence’s youngest brother Norman, now married, worked as a clerk for the US Postal Service while his wife Geraldine worked as a bookkeeper for the Standard Oil Company.⁴⁰ Lawrence’s father Gordon lived in Jacksonville until he died in 1959 while his mother Edith passed away in Jacksonville on December 6, 1985, at the age of eighty-nine.⁴¹ Jack lived in Jacksonville at the time of his death on May 18, 1999. A few months later, Norman passed away in Umatilla, FL on December 2, 1999, at the age of seventy-five.⁴² Lawrence’s sister lived in Jacksonville at the time of her death on April 26, 2010, at the age of eighty-nine.⁴³

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