Vivian Gordon Bowden
| Vivian Gordon Bowden CBE |
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|---|---|
Bowden as Trade Commissioner in Shanghai, May 1937.
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| Born |
28 May 1884 Stanmore, Colony of New South Wales |
| Died | 17 February 1942 (aged 57) Muntok, Bangka Island, Dutch East Indies |
| Alma mater | Shore School Bedford Grammar School |
| Occupation | Public servant, diplomat |
| Spouse(s) | Dorothy Dennis (m. 1917) |
| Children | Ivor Gordon Bowden |
Vivian Gordon Bowden CBE (28 May 1884 – 17 February 1942) was an Australian public servant and diplomat.
Bowden was born on 28 May 1884 in Stanmore in the Colony of New South Wales, the son of merchant Vivian Rothwell Bowden and Mary Ann Harrison Cazaly. First educated at Sydney Church of England Grammar School, Bowden was sent to England to board at Bedford Grammar School. Upon leaving school, Bowden travelled to Europe to study the silk industry at the Technische Hochschule Darmstadt and spent two years in France undergoing training as a raw silk inspector, subsequently finding employment as a silk inspector at Canton and Tokyo. In 1908 he joined Bowden Bros & Co. Ltd., the mercantile house his father had established, in the raw produce export department in Yokohama.
Back in England, on the outbreak of war Bowden was commissioned in the British Army Service Corps on 4 February 1915. On 3 July 1915 he married Dorothy Dennis at the Savoy Chapel in London. In January 1917 he transferred to the Royal Engineers and towards the end of the war was appointed assistant director of railways and docks in Cherbourg and promoted temporary major in May 1918. After being demobilised on 21 March 1919, Bowden eventually returned to Japan, working in the export business and in 1921 was appointed managing director of A. Cameron and Co. (China), Ltd., in Shanghai, an import firm for which he worked until 1935, when he was obliged to resign to take up the position of Trade Commissioner.
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