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HARRY ROWLES was born May 15, 1888 in what is now Collingswood NJ, and lived their for most of his life. He was the son of William and Mary Rowles. William Rowles had been working as a farmer in Newton Township, which became Haddon Township, as far back as the late 1860s, his father, Ebenezer Rowles, had been living in Newton Township as far back as 1850. Sadly, Mary Rowles died sometime prior to the 1900 census enumeration. At the time of the 1910 census Harry Rowles was living with his father, stepmother Emma and older brother William on Knight Avenue in Collingswood. He was working as a machinist and was single at that time. William Rowles, then 59, was working as a laborer at a cemetery, most likely Harleigh Cemetery on the Collingswood-Camden border. When Harry Rowles registered for the draft in June of 1917, he and his wife, the former Eva M. Riley, were living at 22 Penn Avenue in Collingswood. Harry Rowles was working as a chauffer for R.C. Tasker of 664 Haddon Avenue, Collingswood. The couple later lived at 110 Lawnside Avenue in Collingswood. Harry Rowles was not called up by the Army as were many of his contemporaries. On June 27, 1918, at the age of thirty, he enlisted in the Naval Aviation Corps. He was summoned to report for duty on September 9, and was sent to the Great Lakes Naval Training Center in Illinois. Apprentice Seaman Harry Rowles died at Great Lakes Naval Station IL on October 3, 1918 from spinal meningitis following an attack of Spanish Influenza and pneumonia. He was survived by his wife, Mrs. Eva M. Riley Rowles, later of Atlantic Avenue and 16 Penn Avenue, Collingswood, and his father, William M. Rowles, of Knight Avenue, the same borough. He is remembered on the World War I War Memorial in Collingswood NJ as "Harry Roles". |
