At the start of the war of the Rough Wooing, he went with Lord Hertford and participated in the devastating raid on Edinburgh in 1544, and was knighted at Leith on 11 May.
[1] Bowes retook Coldingham Priory in November 1544, after a discussion if local men could be "assured".
[2] William Eure sent George Bowes and the Italian military engineer Archangelo Arcano to set up a fort at Coldingham.
George Bowes was made the "petty-captain" with 100 men, and some gunners from the Berwick garrison, and ten Irish arquebusiers.
[4] The English Privy Council announced to the Earl of Shrewsbury who was the Lieutenant-General in the North, that it was Henry VIII's intention to confer on him a barony.