Oldest Warrior
During World War II he was given a job by his old friend Roger Keyes, then head of the Commandos. Cowan voluntarily took the lower rank of Commander and went to Scotland in 1941 to train the commandos in small boat handling. He served in North Africa, where he saw action at Mechili and at the Battle of Bir Hakeim, where he was captured on 27 May 1942, having attached himself to the Indian 18th King Edward VII's Own Cavalry (his commando unit having been disbanded). He was fighting an Italian tank crew single-handedly armed only with a revolver. He was repatriated in 1943 under an unusual agreement with Italy whereby some 800 Italian seamen interned in neutral Saudi Arabia from the Red Sea squadron were exchanged for a similar number of British POWs. An unusual feature was that there was no stipulation about the men’s future activities and they were free to return to action so he rejoined the commandos and saw action in Italy during 1944. He was awarded a bar to his DSO. He retired once more in 1945. After the war he was invited to become Colonel of the 18th King Edward VII's Own and visited India to receive this honour, which he considered the greatest he had received.
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Famous quotes containing the words oldest and/or warrior:
“It is a doctrine alike of the oldest and of the newest philosophy, that man is one, and that you cannot injure any member, without a sympathetic injury to all the members.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“By many a legendary tale of violence and wrong, as well as by events which have passed before their eyes, these people have been taught to look upon white men with abhorrence.... I can sympathize with the spirit which prompts the Typee warrior to guard all the passes to his valley with the point of his levelled spear, and, standing upon the beach, with his back turned upon his green home, to hold at bay the intruding European.”
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