Rowland Bourke

Early Life

Rowland Bourke was the youngest son of Dr. Isidore McWilliam Bourke and his second wife, Marianna Bourke. Dr. Bourke was an army surgeon who had served in India and the East Indies. The Bourke family was a large, mixed one, which included three sisters, three half-brothers and two adopted nephews.

Dr. Bourke became intrigued by stories of the Yukon Gold Rush and decided to search for gold. He went to Dawson City with a couple of his oldest sons and started prospecting.

Dr. Bourke only allowed Rowland to join him in 1902, once his schooling was completed. After a few years without finding gold, Dr. Bourke and his family moved to Nelson, British Columbia, where he bought a ranch and established a fruit farm.

First World War

When the First World War broke out, Rowland Bourke tried to join the Canadian armed forces. He was rejected due to extremely poor eyesight, so he travelled to Britain to try his luck there. Bourke succeeded on 7 January 1916, obtaining a commission as a sub-lieutenant in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR). After training, he was posted to Ireland to command motor launch ML-341. These 24-metre-long vessels were fast, low and sleek.

For the next year, Bourke undertook a routine of dull antisubmarine patrols. (See also Canada and Antisubmarine Warfare in the First World War.) Unhappy with the lack of action, he requested a transfer. In November 1917, Bourke was posted to the Dover Patrol to command ML-276, a rescue launch.

By April 1918, naval authorities had decided they could only destroy the U-boat threat by blocking the Belgian ports of Zeebrugge and Ostend, where the U-boats were based. The plan was to block their entrances with obsolete British cruisers filled with cement and explosives. Once this was done, the crews would set the charges and escape in rescue launches.

On 22 April, the navy succeeded in blocking most of the entrance to Zeebrugge. The operation at Ostend, however, was less successful. The Germans had moved two lighted marker buoys the navy intended to use as navigation aids; the blockships were also blinded by enemy searchlights. As a result, HMS Brilliant ran aground 2,200 metres east of the canal entrance. Then HMS Sirius rammed into it from astern and also grounded.

When another motor launch, ML-532, was badly damaged, Bourke quickly came to the rescue. Ignoring enemy fire, he manoeuvred his vessel, ML-276, alongside the sunken Brilliant and rescued 38 crewmen. He then towed the crippled ML-532 out of the harbour, where it got home under its own power. Bourke received the Distinguished Service Order for this act.

The navy made another attempt to block German access to Ostend on 9 May. At the beginning of the raid, however, one of the two blockships had to turn back due to engine trouble. The remaining ship, HMS Vindictive, was the only means of blocking Ostend. When the cruiser’s captain was killed by a shell, his first lieutenant took over. Then Vindictive ran aground, and he ordered the crew to abandon ship.

ML-254 took off 40 of the cruiser’s crew. As it drew away, the charges aboard Vindictive exploded. The blockship lay at an angle across the canal, only partly obstructing it, but it was deemed good enough.

Bourke steered ML-276 to where the cruiser sank while under heavy enemy fire. He rescued three badly wounded sailors who were clinging to an upturned lifeboat. During the rescue, a six-inch shell landed in Bourke’s motor launch, killing two of his crew. Altogether, his vessel had 55 strikes on its hull and superstructure. For his bravery, Bourke received the Victoria Cross (VC), presented by King George V.

Interwar Years

Rowland Bourke served in the RNVR until 1919, then returned to Nelson and resumed fruit farming. On 24 September, he married his Australian-born fiancée, Rosalind (Linda) Barnet in Vancouver. The newlyweds settled on the fruit farm.

By 1931, Bourke’s eyesight had become so bad that he was afraid he might become blind. Because farming had become too difficult, the couple moved to Victoria in 1932. Bourke got a job with the federal civil service at Esquimalt’s RCN dockyard.

As the threat of another world war grew, naval authorities asked Bourke to help establish a Fisherman’s Naval Reserve that would assist in patrols and security along the west coast.

Second World War

When Canada declared war in September 1939, the navy brought Rowland Bourke into the Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve (RCNVR) at his previous rank of lieutenant-commander. After working as a recruiting officer, Bourke was promoted commander and took command of HMCS Givenchy, a First World War-era Battle-class trawler in Esquimalt. This was followed by command of HMCS Burrard, a naval shore establishment in Vancouver.

Postwar

Rowland Bourke remained in the navy until his retirement in 1950. As a VC recipient, he attended the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. In 1956, he was one of 35 Canadian VC holders who participated in the VC centenary celebrations in London’s Hyde Park. When Bourke passed away, he was buried with full military honours in Royal Oak Burial Park, Victoria.

Memory

Rowland Bourke bequeathed his VC and his other medals to the National Archives of Canada (now Library and Archives Canada). Two geographical features in British Columbia commemorate him: Bourke Rock, southwest of Bella Bella, and Mount Bourke, near the west coast of Vancouver Island.

For several years, sailors from HMCS Malahat, Victoria’s naval reserve division, have paraded at Bourke’s gravesite on Remembrance Day. In 2018, a commemorative paving stone was unveiled next to the Chelsea war monument in London’s Sloane Square. It was part of a larger project to recognize all British First World War VC recipients in their hometowns during the centennial of their award.