Eric Kendall Bowden was an Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n solicitor

Solicitor

Solicitors are lawyers who traditionally deal with any legal matter including conducting proceedings in courts. In the United Kingdom, a few Australian states and the Republic of Ireland, the legal profession is split between solicitors and barristers , and a lawyer will usually only hold one title...

 and politician.

Early life

The second son of John and Sarah Bowden, he was born in Parramatta

Parramatta, New South Wales

Parramatta is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located in Greater Western Sydney west of the Sydney central business district on the banks of the Parramatta River. Parramatta is the administrative seat of the Local Government Area of the City of Parramatta...

, New South Wales

New South Wales

New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

, where his family had resided for four generations. Educated at Newington College

Newington College

Newington College is an independent, Uniting Church, day and boarding school for boys, located in Stanmore, an inner-western suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia....

 (1882-1884) and Sydney Boys High School

Sydney Boys High School

Sydney Boys High School is an academically selective public secondary school for boys, located in the City of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, with 1,180 students, from years 7 to 12...

, he qualified as a solicitor in 1894 after serving articles with his father. Four years later married Reinetta May Murphy.

Political career

In the Federal election of December 1906, and while serving as an alderman in Granville

Granville, New South Wales

Granville, is a suburb in western Sydney, Australia. Granville is located west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Parramatta. A small part in the north-west is located in the Local Government Area of the City of Holroyd.South Granville is a...

, he won the seat of Nepean

Division of Nepean

The Division of Nepean was an Australian Electoral Division in the state of New South Wales. It was located in the western suburbs of Sydney. It originally covered the suburbs of Granville, Lithgow and Penrith...

. In 1910 he was defeated and again practised in partnership with his father until 1919 when he regained the seat of Nepean as a Nationalist

Nationalist Party of Australia

The Nationalist Party of Australia was an Australian political party. It was formed on 17 February 1917 from a merger between the conservative Commonwealth Liberal Party and the National Labor Party, the name given to the pro-conscription defectors from the Australian Labor Party led by Prime...

. From 1922 he represented Parramatta

Division of Parramatta

The Division of Parramatta is an Australian Electoral Division in New South Wales. The division was created in 1900 and was one of the original 75 divisions contested at the first federal election. It is named for the locality of Parramatta. The name Parramatta has been sourced to an Aboriginal...

 after Nepean was absorbed by that seat. From 1923 Bowden served as Minister for Defence

Minister for Defence (Australia)

The Minister for Defence of Australia administers his portfolio through the Australian Defence Organisation, which comprises the Department of Defence and the Australian Defence Force. Stephen Smith is the current Minister.-Ministers for Defence:...

, resigning in 1925 due to ill health. He served on, and at times chaired, the joint select committee on electoral law in 1926 and 1927 and was a royal commission

Royal Commission

In Commonwealth realms and other monarchies a Royal Commission is a major ad-hoc formal public inquiry into a defined issue. They have been held in various countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Saudi Arabia...

er on the constitution

Constitution of Australia

The Constitution of Australia is the supreme law under which the Australian Commonwealth Government operates. It consists of several documents. The most important is the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Australia...

between 1927 and 1929. In the 1929 election he lost his seat.