Mary Moyle and Tom Bowman

On a recent trip to the Eyre Peninsula in 2022, Wayne and I called at the Tumby Bay kiosk called The Ritz and the walls were covered with old photos of Tumby Bay.   The history of the area was presented visually.  I was interested because Mary was teaching  nearby in 1939 and 1940 and it was the area in which my mother met my father.

I could see from the photographs that it was quite a prosperous area.

It was and is, a grain growing and mixed farming area of the West Coast.  There were many teams of draught horses used for cropping and carting of grain and taking sheep to and from markets and the ships in Tumby Bay. There were cars, trucks and tractors beginning to be the norm with those who could afford them.

Many farms had been sold during the Depression because their families hadn’t survived financially. Many had been unable to support more than one son. This is what had happened to Tom Bowman’s family.  There were 4 sons and they had lost the farm.

 Many young men were looking for farm work including Tom Bowman. In 1940 he was employed on Ken Ford’s farm near Cummins.

.In June Mary wrote and invited him to join her at a local person’s invitation for an evening at their home.  Assumedly for dinner?  Tom had a car and he accepted. The whirlwind had started. There is no record of how the romance flourished but it clearly did.

Mary had already decided she needed to go home and had resigned from the Education. Dept.  Tom suggested that he could drive her home to Watervale on his way to Adelaide.

Meanwhile Tom had explained to his closest relations (e.g.his brother in law Syd Wundersitz) that he was “smitten”. 

There was a lot of discussion between Mary and Tom and between Tom and some of his army contacts about the pros and cons of marrying before active service or waiting until after the war. There was an urgency about all such decisions.

1927	Aileen had married	Eric Giles
1932	Les married	Jean Castine
1934	Bob married	Phyllis Osborne
1934	Win married	Oliver Burford
1936	Ada married	Reg Mugge
1938	Nell married	Lawrence Bagshaw
1940	Kath married	Les Longmire

It seems obvious that marrying was an obvious possibility for the chapter for Mary.

By November Tom and Mary  made the decision that they would marry and it had to be done immediately.  They were engaged on Nov 9^th…..

….and married at the Presbyterian Church Clare on Nov 16^th.

They went to Port Elliot for their brief honeymoon .

And Tom went back into training immediately.

The new couple were unable to live together because of the army live-in training demands. Mary always rented somewhere close to where Tom was in training.

They had some of the weekend time together and one brief short holiday together.  On this short holiday Tom’s parents drove from Ardrossan to meet the new couple and some of the Moyle sisters at Kath and Les Longmire’s house at Kybunga.

Tom was welcomed by all the Moyle family.

Time Line  Of Tom Bowman – 1940 -1942

	To Harold and Beatrice BOWMAN
	3RD child of a family of 7 siblings
1929	From Primary school to St Peters College
1931	Left school – Farming Jobs – Cummins Farm
1940	Met Mary Moyle
1940 Nov 9th	Engaged to Mary Moyle
1940 Nov 16th	Married Mary Moyle
1940 Nov	In Training Mary Renting nearby at Glandore
1941 March	Albury Training NCO  Mary renting in Albury with other wives
1941 May	Woodside Training Mary renting in Bridgewater with Peg Warbuton
	AWL whenever possible Wicked!!
	Short Leaves – visited Kybunga with Moyle and Bowman families tog
	Mid is pregnant . Baby due April 1942
16th Nov 1941	Boat has secretly left for Middle East
	Numbered letters being flowing to each other.
April 11th 1942	Meredith Bowman born in Clare.
June 1942	Huge battles in June at El Alamein
October 20th 1942	Last letter  no. 95 written from the Mediterranean beach before huge battle
Oct. 26th 1942	Tom reported Missing after being wounded in battle
	Eventually Presumed Killed in Action
55 years later	Explanation why no body was found He’d been directly hit by a bomb
	Full Details of his life and years of OS army service in Jo Wundersitz’s excellent  biography of Tom Bowman. I had all the letters kept in a case.
2020	Australian War Museum accepted all the letters and photos from Tom Bowman.  They are available to view if notice is given to AWM some days earlier.

Mary always rented close  to wherever Tom was  training,  first in Glandore, then Albury and then Bridgewater.  Tom was training to be an officer. He was able to share some time with Mid on weekends and he managed to disobey the rules and occasionally escape from Woodside to be with her in Bridgewater.  The AWL (Absent Without Leave) sealed the future with Mary becoming pregnant. I am very grateful for all the above  – rushed marriage, rushed visits AWL etc because I AM HERE and have been lucky enough to belong to two wonderful families.

There is great joking always from Syd, Dulce, Ike and Judd.

Here is their response to hearing the new that Tom and Mary were to have a baby.

It is necessary to explain with photos Tom Bowman’s family. Mary was welcomed and absolutely accepted as a beautiful new sister by all the Bowman siblings. She visited and stayed with family members on and off for decades.

I can prove the point by showing a photo taken when Mid was revisiting Maitland en route to the reunion at Wheatleigh in 1988.  The Bowman sisters were so thrilled to see their sister in law.  The sisters are Dulce who married Syd Wundersitz decades ago, Judd who married Ike Adams decades ago, and Shy who married Frank Wilson later but still decades ago.

There were 4 boys and 3 girls in the Bowman family.

Geoff had already enlisted when this was taken.

I think it might have been just before Tom’s trip to Adelaide  to sign up for the Army.

Tom left Australia on 16^th November 1941.

Meredith was born on April 11^th 1942

Tom was reported Missing in Action in October 1942

The details of his war service in the Middle east and many of the letters he sent home have been compiled in a book by Jo Wundersitz , my cousin.

I could not have done this as the grief and sadness are too powerful.

But I am very grateful that it has been done.  The book is available and can be borrowed from me or from Tom or Christie or from the Australian War Memorial.

There is great sensitivity and love an all the letters from Tom.  Because of censorship he had to be very careful not to describe any realities of the action but the love is paramount.   

I will include a letter which he sent to Lawrie Bagshaw (Nell’s husband ) at a time when a huge battle had been survived and he knew there was another one looming. He felt comfortable enough to ask Lawrie for his help in his absence.

The letters and the photo album of Tom’s time in the Middle east are in the Australian War Memorial in Canberra and can be accessed as long as the Museum staff are given enough time to arrange the same.