Union Jack : Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force

Union Jack flag. The flag is made from cotton and is double sided, with the crosses of St George, St Patrick and St Andrew sewn individually in place on both sides of the flag.

Associated with the service of Commander Roland Griffiths Bowen, who was born on 14 January 1879 at Taggerty in Victoria. When Bowen was 7 years old, his father died, after which, his mother moved the family to Petrie in Queensland, where he attended state school. After leaving school, Bowen began work as a railways clerk in Brisbane. He also joined the Queensland Naval Brigade and achieved the rank of sub-lieutenant in 1900 and in 1911, he joined the Royal Australian Navy as a lieutenant.

He was posted to Thursday Island as District Naval Officer (DNO) , remaining in that position until February 1914, when was sent to Melbourne as the assistant DNO. He remained in this position until the beginning of the First World War. Bowen married Agnes Grace Mary Bell at the All Saints Anglican Church in East St Kilda on 14 August and only 5 days later, embarked from Sydney with the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force (ANMEF).

On 11 September, Bowen led a party of 25 Naval Reservists and an Army Medical officer, Captain Pockley ashore at Kabakaul. Their objective was to destroy the German radio station inland at Bitapaka. As the party moved inland, they were ambushed by a party of native soldiers, led by three German officers. In the ensuing skirmish, several Australians, including Pockley, were killed or mortally wounded and one of the German officers was wounded and surrendered.

Bowen forced the German at gun-point to call on his comrades to surrender. Only a little while later, he was shot in the head by a sniper and evacuated. He was mentioned in dispatches for his gallantry and was promoted to lieutenant commander in November. Bowen returned to duty as a member of the naval staff in Melbourne in April 1915. Agnes Bowen died in October, leaving Bowen to raise their infant daughter. In 1916 he became the first state president of the Returned Sailors' and Soldiers' Imperial League of Australia. He was posted to Perth, Western Australia in 1917, where he married Corinne Elizabeth Bruce-Nichol at St George's Anglican Cathedral in November.

Bowen was promoted to commander in April 1919. He was the DNO in Tasmania from 1919 to 1923 and the DNO in Western Australia from 1923 to 1935. He retired from the Navy in 1936 and moved to Sydney. Bowen retired to Canberra in 1957 and in 1959 was awarded the Order of the British Empire. He died on 21 October 1965.