Viewing Object

Frank Bowling was born in 1895 to parents William and Susannah Bowling in Stratford, Ontario. In 1906 the family moved to Edmonton. Frank served in WWI and was injured 11 days before the war ended in 1918, and spent a year in hospital where he had to learn how to walk again. After returning home, he moved to B.C. to marry the widow of his brother, William Henry. He married Nellie Subrina Bowling (nee Ross) on May 4, 1920. The couple had four children: Frank Ross, Gwendolyn Roberta, Donald William, and Thomas Hugh. Frank bought his Fort Langley farm, known as Fern Hill Farm, with the soldier settlement he received through Veterans Affairs. In 1937 Frank's father William passed away, so the family returned to Edmonton while renting their farm at Fort Langley. They returned in 1940. During WWII Frank worked as a steam fitter at the shipyards in North Vancouver. From 1946-1948 Frank was the president of the Farmers' Institute, but in 1948 a serious tractor accident laid him up for several months. Frank died on May 31, 1959.

Nellie Subrina Ross was born in 1893. She married William Henry Bowling in 1915. He died in 1918. When his brother Frank returned from the war, he married Nellie in 1920. The couple settled in Fort Langley with their four children: Frank Ross (b. 1921), Gwen (b. 1923), Donald (b. 1924) and Tom (b. 1927). The family returned to Edmonton, where the Bowlings were from, in 1938. They returned to Langley in the early 1940s Nellie died in 1985.