Josephine Beatrice Bowman: The Navy Nurse Who Helped Lead Women Into Military Service

Josephine Beatrice Bowman: The Navy Nurse Who Helped Lead Women Into Military Service

I have been learning about the people who served in the wars. I came across Josephine Beatrice Bowman.

She was born on the 19th of December 1881 in Des Moines in Iowa. At a time when professional opportunities for women were still very limited, she trained as a nurse at the Medico-Chirurgical Hospital in Philadelphia and graduated in 1904. She joined the American Red Cross Nursing Service, and assisted victims of a devastating tornado in Mississippi in 1908.

Later that year, on the 3rd of October 1908, she became one of the first twenty women to join the newly formed United States Navy Nurse Corps, often remembered as part of the “Sacred Twenty.” She was promoted to Chief Nurse by 1911. In 1914, she temporarily left the Navy to serve with the Red Cross in Great Britain during the beginning of the First World War. She cared for wounded soldiers at the Royal Naval Hospital Haslar. She returned to the naval service in 1915.

By 1916, she was stationed in Guam, where she helped to train local Chamorro women in nursing and midwifery. When the United States entered the First World War, she served as Chief Nurse at the Naval Hospital in Great Lakes, Illinois, overseeing the staff during both the war and the influenza pandemic of 1918–1919. She later worked at a naval tuberculosis sanitarium in Colorado, continuing to care for those affected by long-term illness.

In 1919, she led the first group of Navy nurses to serve at sea aboard the hospital ship USS Relief, this was a huge moment for women in naval service. In 1922, she became superintendent of the Navy Nurse Corps, a role that she held for over twelve years. During this time, she worked to improve pay, conditions, and professional opportunities for nurses, while also pushing for recognition.

Although she did not receive specific named medals for her service, her contributions were formally recognised when she was granted the rank of lieutenant commander when she retired in 1935. She spent her later years in Pennsylvania, remaining active in nursing circles until her death on the 3rd of January 1971 at the age of 89.