b. 23/11/1882 Maryville, Tennessee. d. 22/11/1967 Seattle, Washington.
DATE OF MOH ACTION: 14/02/1910 USS Hopkins.
Robert E Bonney MOH
Robert Earl Bonney was a native of Tennessee, having been born in Maryville, Blount County, Tennessee on Nov. 23, 1882. In 1900, he was living in Delaware Township, Leavenworth County, Kansas, on the farm of his parents, George and Agnes Bonney. His father, George West Bonney was a veteran of the Civil War, having served in Georgia under Union General William Tecumseh Sherman during the epic march from “Atlanta to the Sea.” In 1901 in Leavenworth, Kansas, Robert Earl Bonney enlisted in the U.S. Navy. He was 18 years old.
During his long naval career, Robert Bonney served during the Philippine campaign of the Spanish American War, and during both World War I and World War II. In addition to the award of the Medal of Honor, he was received medals in 1912 for his service in Nicaragua and during the Mexican campaign from 1912 to 1917.
Still in the Navy during World War I, he was promoted to the rank of Chief Warrant Officer, and trained naval recruits in Seattle. In 1919, he was transferred to San Pedro, Calif. for sea duty aboard the destroyer USS Lea (DD-118). The ship had been in service on the East Coast during the war, and had just joined the Pacific Coast fleet. In 1920, Chief Warrant Officer Bonney had some medical issues and was transferred to the U.S. Naval Hospital at Balboa Park, San Diego County. It was a short stay, and he soon returned to duty on the Lea, where he remained until just before the ship was decommissioned in 1922.
Chief Bonney was again transferred to the Seattle area, where he remained. After his transfer to Seattle, Robert Bonney, his wife Elizabeth and son Robert Stewart Bonney made their home in Alderwood Manor in the Martha Lake area.
Robert Bonney retired from naval duty in 1930 with the rank of Chief Warrant Officer. As a civilian, he was employed by Edmonds School District #15, and served as a custodian at the Alderwood Manor Grade School — a position he held until the outbreak of yet another war — WWII. At this time, he and his wife were residents of the Meadowdale area, having moved there in 1939.
With the outbreak of World War II, Chief Warrant Officer Bonney, now in his late 50s, once again returned to active duty with the Navy and served as an inspector at the Seattle naval shipyards. Following World War II, he retired from naval service with the rank of Lieutenant.
Robert Bonney’s wife, Elizabeth, died at the Bremerton Naval Hospital in 1949. When he had met his future wife, Elizabeth Isabell McKnight, she was a nurse in Seattle and they married in 1914.
Robert Earl Bonney was a member of Alderwood Manor’s Robert Burns Lodge No. 243, F&AM of Washington, and later transferred to F&AM Lodge 65 of Edmonds. He remained a member of the Masonic Order throughout his lifetime. He also held memberships in the Knight Templars of Everett; the American Legion; and the Fleet Reserve Association, Branch No. 18, Seattle.
Nationally, Mr. Bonney made three official trips to Washington, D.C. In January of 1957, he received an invitation, and attended the second inauguration of President Dwight Eisenhower. The following year, at the request of President Eisenhower, Mr. Bonney placed a wreath at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Washington, D.C. In November of 1963, at the invitation of the family of slain president John F. Kennedy, he attended the funeral services for President Kennedy. While staying with friends in Mountlake Terrace, Robert Earl Bonney died on Nov. 22, 1967, one day before his 85th birthday. During his funeral services, he was accorded full military honors by the U.S. Navy. He is buried at Acacia Memorial Park in Seattle, next to his first wife, Elizabeth Bonney, and also his second wife, Floyd Ellen Bonney, who died in 1966.
MOH CITATION:
While serving on board the U.S.S. Hopkins, Bonney displayed extraordinary heroism in the line of his profession on the occasion of the accident to one of the boilers of that vessel, 14 February 1910.
BURIAL LOCATION: ACACIA MEMORIAL PARK, SEATTLE, WASHINGTON.
LAUREL 6, LOT 58C, GRAVE 4
LOCATION OF MEDAL: UNKNOWN.
