Background
The son of David Sovereign Bowlby and Martha Esther Murphy, he was born in Berlin (later Kitchener).
The son of David Sovereign Bowlby and Martha Esther Murphy, he was born in Berlin (later Kitchener).
He was educated there, at Saint Jerome"s College and at Toronto University, where he earned a degree in medicine Bowlby subsequently became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons in London and was also licensed to practice by the Royal College of Physicians.
He served as mayor of Berlin in 1901. Bowlby was the first person born in Berlin to become its mayor. During World War I, he served in the Army Medical Corps of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, later becoming assistant director of Medical Services.
Bowlby died after falling off a cliff near a military hospital in Bath and was cremated there.
His widow died from injuries sustained in a car crash two years later.