South Yorkshire Times, February 24, 1939

Legion Chairman.

It is often said that if you want a job doing properly give it to a busy man. The wisdom of that maxim has been exemplified by the appointment of Mr. I. J. Rowley as chairman of the Wombwell branch of the British Legion. For five years Mr. Rowley has been a member of ‘the executive committee of the. Yorkshire Mine Deputies’ Association and is also absorbed in Church work, but he has made an outstanding success of his Legion responsibilities—so much so that under his leadership the branch has expanded considerably.

He was in Legion work in the days of –its early activities but has only recently been persuaded to come back into office. The prestige he enjoys in the town and the stability of his character have played no small part in enhancing the status of the local branch.

The rank and file have implicit trust in him. Mr. Rowley started work at the age of thirteen at Mitchell Main Colliery and after a short spell at Wombwell Main returned to Mitchell Main to work at the coal face. For a time he was a shot-firer at Allerton Bywater. (West Yorkshire) but had been in business two years and a half when the war came and. he was posted to the 47th Battery Indian R.F.A., being later transferred to the 17th  Division serving in Mesopotamia, where he remained until hostilities ceased. The last action in which he fought before the Turks surrendered was near the ancient city of Nineveh.

From Mesopotamia he was drafted with the Division to India and did not reach England until April, 1919 to return to Cortonwood.

Five years later he moved to Mitchell Main, where he has since been employed as a deputy and shot-firer. For eleven years he was treasurer of the Sunday School of Park Street Methodist Church