The Lieutenant Colonel Edward H. Bowes Collection documents the personal history of Lieutenant Colonel Edward Henry Bowes (1896-1944). Personal items relating to Edward Bowes’ career in the U.S. Army from 1919 to 1944 include diaries, photographs, and other service-related documents. Bowes’ wife Roselmer Bowes (nee McKee) and two children lived primarily in New York and San Francisco, California and are documented through photographs and other documents. Bowes was a prisoner of war (POW) in a Philippine Military Prison Camp during World War II and later died after his prisoner vessel was sunk. There are also two yearbooks, a photo album, a birth certificate of Roselmer Bowes (nee McKee), a handbook meant for cadets about the West Point Military Academy, and a copy of a telegram and record detailing Bowes’ death.

Edward Henry Bowes was born on February 20, 1896 in Corning, New York. As a student of the United States Military Academy at West Point, Class of 1919, he was part of the choir, Camp Illumination, and a marksman. With his class, he toured the battlefields of Western Europe from July 1919 to October 1919, keeping a diary of his time there. He was a part of ROTC in Maryland in 1928. Arriving back at West Point in June 1934, he was assigned to the Department of Tactics, commanding I-K Company, and was in charge of “Infantry Weapons” instructions for new classes, having wrote “Tactics and Techniques of Infantry and Associated arms, Extension Course.” He was Training Officer, USCC from June 1938 to June 1939, graduating from West Point in June 1939. He was appointed a Lieutenant Colonel, 31st Infantry Regiment, Army of the United States, on September 15, 1941. He was captured by the Japanese in Bataan during World War II and was a prisoner of war, later dying while aboard a POW vessel that was sunk on December 15, 1944. He married Roselner McKee (born 1901) and they had two daughters, Mary Caroline (nicknamed named Urch) and Patricia (nicknamed Patsy).  

The Edward Bowes Collection documents the personal history of Lieutenant Colonel Edward Henry Bowes (1896-1944) and his career in the U.S. Army. Items relating to Edward H. Bowes, in general, include diaries, yearbooks, letters, correspondence, and many photographs of individuals and places. Bowes primarily resided in upstate New York and San Franciso, California. Personal items from Edward H. Bowes relate to time as a student at West Point and his career in the U.S. Army from 1919 to 1944, including three diaries dating from 1919 to 1939, and many photographs, mainly of family and of places in Western Europe.