See item level records.

Administrative / biographical background
Gower was born in Kenya in 1912 and entered the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth in 1926. As a midshipman he served on the new cruiser HMS SHROPSHIRE in the First Cruiser Squadron based at Malta. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for gallantry, skill and determination when in command of the destroyer HMS SWIFT during the Normandy landings in 1944. He was twice mentioned in dispatches during his command of the destroyer HMS ORWELL on Arctic convoys and operations off Norway in 1944-1945. His later appointments included being commander of the Royal Naval College at Greenwich in 1951-1953 and director of the Royal Navy physical training school at Portsmouth in 1954-1956. He was in command of HMS DIANA when the destroyer was used in the testing of the effects of nuclear fallout during Operation Mosaic off the Montebello Islands in 1956. Gower was the inspiration for the fictional character Lieutenant-Commander Robert Badger (The Artful Bodger) in the satirical book 'We Joined the Navy' by John Winton, published in 1959. On his retirement in 1962, Gower had served in the Royal Navy for 36 years. A copy of the autobiography of Captain J.R. Gower DSC RN is in the Caird Library collection.