He saw action in France during the Second World War with the 1st Canadian Paratroop Battalion. He retired with rank of major and remained with the militia for many years. He was employed with the Royal Bank of Canada for thirty years, and then was a partner in Basin Insurance Agency until retiring in 1983. He was a member of St. Peter’s Parish, Dartmouth, NS. He was a life long member of Gyro Friendship Club, Windsor, Truro and Dartmouth.
Source:
http://www.bowlbyfamily.org/ancestor/d4334.htm:
ALL SET FOR HIS FIRST LEAP is Canadian Paratrooper, Sgt H.R. Bowlby, Yarmouth, N.S. After five jumps he will get his wings. Major Harold R. Bowlby – World War II Veteran
Prologue — Rather than singling out one individual who has made a contribution to our Country, I have chosen to do this project on a group of individuals. This group is all the men and women who served in the Canadian Armed Forces during the Second World War. The person I have chosen to represent this group is Major Harold R. Bowlby, 1st Canadian Paratroop Battalion – Royal Canadian Army – my grandfather.
I was born on September 12, 1917 in the small village of Wilmot in the Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia. Here, I grew up on our family farm with my parents, a younger brother and sister, Arthur and Marian, my grandmother and great grandmother. Life seemed great to me even though there were chores, long hikes to school, hand-me-down clothes, and none of the luxuries of life that we have today for work or play. The farm provided us with plenty of good food, including vegetables, fruit, eggs, meat, milk products and honey. This helped our family get through the depression years. School work was a cinch for me and I graduated with honours in 1934 to take up a career in banking with the Royal Bank of Canada.
The out break of World War II in 1939 changed all that. Shortly after this, I resigned from the bank and enlisted in the West Nova Regiment. After completing basic training, I awaited orders to go overseas to England. About this time, volunteers were requested to form Canada’s first ever paratroop battalion. I volunteered among the many and was the second man chosen in Canada to form this battalion. We did initial jump training with the American Army in Fort Benning, Georgia. We then were qualified as instructors and returned to Camp Shilo, Manitoba to instruct other Canadian soldiers.
Our unit arrived in England in July of 1943 and began a long series of advanced combat training. During a training jump in England in late 1943, I had a horrifying experience – my parachute did not open and I thought I was a goner. However, a short distance from the ground, my secondary chute partially opened enough to break my fall. I was laid up in hospital for awhile. After my release from the hospital, I jumped again and transferred to the British Intelligence Service and spent the next few months learning to become a spy.
In early June, 1944, shortly before the D-Day Invasion, in the dead of night, I parachuted into France. part of my mission was to make contact with the French Resistance to establish escape routes for troops of the invasion. With a cyanide capsule drilled and embedded into one of my teeth, I had orders to bite should I be caught by the enemy. It would serve no purpose to discuss any further details of my mission into France. I was merely doing my duty as were hundreds of thousands of other Canadian service men and women. I was luckier than many and was able to return home following the was.
But I did not return home to the same Canada that I left. What was a very young and immature country was now a place of hope and prosperity; it was a land of people who were proud to have stood on their own feet for the first time in history. We had declared war ourselves and fought with the Allies with distinction and honour for freedom. My comrades and I were proud to contribute to this change. We no longer took freedom for granted.
1917 - 1991 (74 years)
Siblings
. Margaret BOWLBY
: Address
: Location
: City/Town
: County/Shire
: State/Province
: Country
: Not Set