Badly wounded at the Battle of Passchendaele in 1917, and decorated Legion of Honour,[3] he was subsequently pensioned off from the British Army.
Bowater and Sons in 1919, taking charge of project management for construction of the company's first paper mill at Northfleet on the south side of the Thames estuary near Gravesend, Kent.
[1][3] Expanding the firm quickly, he sold part of the business to Lord Rothermere, using the funds to double production at Northfleet.
Bowater then oversaw an international expansion of the business, with offices and mills in Canada, the United States and Australia.
[1][2] A period of international expansion began in 1953, which included investments in North America in the mid-late 1950s and the acquisition of manufacturers in continental Europe in 1959-60.