John Bowe Coming Here From France, a Wounded Soldier

Will Convalesce at Home in Minneapolis—Game Virginian Meets Death as Hero.
_________
By Paul Ayres Rockwell.

Special Cable to St. Paul Dispatch and Chicago Daily News Copyrighted

Paris

John Bowe, former Mayor of Canby, Minn., wounded in the action with the foreign legion, has been granted a long leave of absence for convalescence, and is on his way to the United States. He plans to go to his home in Minneapolis.

Christopher Charles of Brooklyn, NY, a legionnaire, informs me of the death in battle of another American volunteer, Frank E. Whitmore of Richmond, VA, who was killed by the Germans in the Champagne, April 17.

“To my regret,” he says, “I have learned that Whitmore was killed on the first day of the legion's latest battle. He died a most heroic death.

WAS GAMEST FIGHTER.

“Whitmore was one of the gamest fighters that ever crossed over from the states.

“If Whitmore had not been the game man he was he would today have been in a hospital instead of in the grave. He went out on the morning of April 17 and was soon hit by a shell fragment. He went back to the dressing station and had his head bandaged and then returned for more fight. He had not been long in the fray before another shell exploded near by, and a huge piece of it tore through Whitmore's stomach, killing him instantly.

“As you know our great leader, Lieutenant Colonel Jean Duriez was also killed that morning. Poor Whitmore was laid in the grave beside his colonel, an honor he well deserved.

WON WAR CROSS.

“In the battle of the Somme last summer Whitmore also showed what a Southerner is made of. He was wounded twice in one day but would not leave the battle field until his arm became stiff and he could not throw grenades.

“For his courage he was decorated with the war cross.”