Some things don't make sense and perhaps there is some confusion between mother RUTH and daughter Adeline Ruth.
1913 Electoral roll JAMES BOW and RUTH living at 541 Crown Street.
Very confusing. Perhaps James is living with the mother Ruth and Adeline is shacked up with Ernest HOPE.
Then James Richard Bow enlists in Army Sydney in 1915. NOK RUTH ADELINE BOW. Hmmmm!! Strange.
It's also very weird as in 1907 in Victoria there is the birth of
BOW JAMES Richard Alexander Mother RUTH WATT Father James Richard BOW.
He was registered as LOWE as well Mother RUTH WATT Unknown father.
1908 James Richard BOW marries Adeline Ruth LOWE.
That seems really bizarre to me. Looks like the mother Ruth has a child with her daughters husband, before Adeline marries him. My Goodness.
It was common for people to fail to register to vote. That may be why you do not see Adeline with her mother and husband.
I don't think that Ruth (LOWE) necessarily had a child with James BOW.
It was also common for the mother of a girl having a baby before marriage to register the infants with herself as mother.
In the news piece which I linked for you, Ruth persists in calling the man her husband. She has with her a 4 year old boy. She is likely perpetuating the story to conceal her daughter's ex nuptial pregnancy.
The NOK on 1915 enlistment is not particularly odd. Perhaps he thought of her as his next of kin really regardless of their living arrangements.
On his re-enlistment 1918 he states NOK his mother Ellen. He at first states single, but later in the file states married.
Sue
