John Cowley (British Army officer)

Lieutenant General Sir John Guise Cowley, GC, KBE, CB (20 August 1905 – 7 January 1993) was a British Army officer and George Cross recipient who reached high office in the 1950s.

Sir John Cowley
Born	20 August 1905 Mussoorie, United Provinces of Agra and Oudh, British Raj (present-day Uttarakhand, India)
Died	7 January 1993 (aged 87) New Forest, Hampshire, England
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	British Army
Years of service	1925–1962
Rank	Lieutenant General
Commands held	Master-General of the Ordnance (1960–62)
Battles/wars	Second World War
Awards	George Cross Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire Companion of the Order of the Bath

Military career

Educated at Wellington College and the Royal Military Academy Woolwich,[1] Cowley was commissioned into the Royal Engineers on 3 September 1925.[2][3] He was promoted to lieutenant on 3 September 1927.[4]

He was awarded the Albert Medal which he subsequently exchanged for the George Cross because of his action during the Quetta earthquake of May 1935.[1] Cowley received his Albert Medal for rescuing earthquake survivors from the ruins of a collapsed hospital. At the time, he was posted to India and was attached to the 16th Army Troops Company, 2nd Queen Victoria's Own Madras Sappers and Miners (now the Madras Engineer Group of the Indian Army):

Lieutenant Cowley and his party were the first to start relief work at the Civil Hospital where the walls of all the wards had collapsed, bringing down the roofs intact on the inmates on whom the debris of the walls had already fallen. At first, the men were too few in number to tear off the roofs, so they raised them up for short periods whilst Lieutenant Cowley crawled under them and dragged out survivors from their beds. The survivors were pre-earthquake hospital patients and mostly quite helpless. Lieutenant Cowley lifted many men in his arms, regardless of the warning that they were suffering from all manner of diseases. Had it not been for the work of this officer and the excellent example shown by him to his men, very many less men would have been saved alive.[5]

Cowley was promoted to captain on 3 September 1936.[6] From 16 November 1936 to 17 December 1938, he was an instructor at Woolwich.[7][8] He was promoted to major on 3 September 1942,[9] and served in the Second World War in the Middle East, Italy and North West Europe.[3] Ending the war as a brigadier and war-substantive lieutenant colonel, he was promoted to colonel on 10 March 1949.[10] In 1953 he became Chief of Staff at Headquarters Eastern Command.[3] He was then appointed Vice Quartermaster-General in 1956, Controller of Munitions at the Ministry of Supply in 1957 and Master-General of the Ordnance in 1960; he retired in 1962.[3]

He was also made Colonel Commandant of the Royal Pioneer Corps from 1961 to 1968.[11]

Family

In 1941 he married Irene Sybil Millen and together they went on to have one son and three daughters.[1]

References

1. GC database
2. "No. 33081". The London Gazette. 4 September 1925. p. 5836.
3. Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives
4. "No. 33308". The London Gazette. 2 September 1927. p. 5671.
5. "No. 34221". The London Gazette. 19 November 1935. p. 7317.
6. "No. 34320". The London Gazette. 4 September 1936. p. 5723.
7. "No. 34343". The London Gazette. 24 November 1936. p. 7572.
8. "No. 34580". The London Gazette. 16 December 1938. p. 7996.
9. "No. 35690". The London Gazette. 1 September 1942. p. 3855.
10. "No. 38773". The London Gazette (Supplement). 2 December 1949. p. 5709.
11. "Royal Pioneer Corps". Regiments.org. Archived from the original on 19 July 2006. Retrieved 18 December 2017.