Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Four: Private R. C. McGowan, Winnipeg Grenadiers, who was killed in action during the defence of Hong Kong on 19 December 1941, on which date Company Sergeant Major John Osborn, of the same unit, was awarded the Victoria Cross

1939-45 Star; Pacific Star; Canadian Volunteer Service Medal, with overseas clasp and additional ‘Hong Kong’ clasp; War Medal 1939-45, Canadian issue in silver; together with the recipient’s Birk’s Memorial Bar ‘Pte. R. C. McGowan, Wpg. Gren., Died in his Country’s Service, 19 Dec. 1941’, about extremely fine (5) £400-£500

Robert Clarence McGowan was born at Gladstone, Manitoba, on 15 December 1919, and attested for the Winnipeg Grenadiers at Winnpeg, Manitoba, on 25 April 1941. He departed Vancouver, as part of “C” Force, in the troopship Prince Rupert on 27 October 1941, arriving in Hong Kong, after brief stops at Honolulu and Manila, on 16 November 1941.

What followed in the desperate struggle to defend the colony that December resulted in the decimation of the regiment’s ranks - one of its number, Company Sergeant-Major John Osborn, winning the Victoria Cross for his gallantry in the fierce fighting on 19 December, on which date McGowan was killed in action, just six days before the Colony fell. He has no known grave, and is commemorated on the Sai Wan Memorial, Hong Kong.

Of the 1,975 Canadians who sailed from Vancouver in October 1941, 290 were killed in action, 267 died in captivity, and a further 493 were wounded in action.

In 1995, the Manitoba government gave the name ‘McGowan Bay’ to a small bay on Wither Lake in his honour.