Lynn Bowles is a British broadcaster and a former traffic weekday mornings reporter for

BBC Radio 2 BBC Radio 2 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It is the most popular station in the United Kingdom with over 15 million weekly listeners. Since launching in 1967, the station broadcasts a wide range of content. ...

Early life

Bowles was born in

Splott Splott ( cy, Y Sblot) is a district and community in the south of the city of Cardiff, capital of Wales, just east of the city centre. It was built up in the late 19th century on the land of two farms of the same name: Upper Splott and Lower Spl ...

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...

, Wales, and is the youngest of three siblings. Her father, Cliff, was a marine engineer; her mother, Josephine, was born in

Monmouth Monmouth ( , ; cy, Trefynwy meaning "town on the Monnow") is a town and community in Wales. It is situated where the River Monnow joins the River Wye, from the Wales–England border. Monmouth is northeast of Cardiff, and west of London. I ...

but moved to Rumney in Cardiff. Bowles attended St Hilda's School, a

boarding school A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. As they have existed for many centuries, and now exten ...

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

, before moving to

Llanishen High School Llanishen High School ( cy, Ysgol Uwchradd Llanisien) is an English-medium secondary school based in Llanishen, Cardiff, Wales. It has approximately 1700 students, making it the largest single-site secondary school in Cardiff. It also has a sixth f ...

when the family lived in

Rudry Rudry ( cy, Rhydri) is a small village and community (Wales), community located to the east of Caerphilly in Wales. As a community Rudry contains not only the village of Rudry, but also the villages of Draethen, Garth and Waterloo, Caerphilly, Wat ...

. She went on to university in

Coventry Coventry ( or ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its ...

Broadcasting career

After university, Bowles worked in

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

for a TV news station. She returned to the UK in the early 1990s but struggled to find work. Eventually she secured a position as a traffic reporter with

LBC LBC (originally the London Broadcasting Company) is a British phone-in and talk radio station owned and operated by Global and based in its headquarters in London. It was the UK's first licensed commercial radio station, and began to broadca ...

, on

Richard Littlejohn Richard Littlejohn (born 18 January 1954) is an English author, broadcaster and journalist. He writes a twice-weekly column for the ''Daily Mail'' about British affairs as observed from reading the news at home in Florida. Littlejohn has been a ...

's show. She subsequently joined the ''Nationwide'' programme on

BBC Radio 5 Live BBC Radio 5 Live is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that broadcasts mainly news, sport, discussion, interviews and phone-ins. It is the principal BBC radio station covering sport in the United Kingdom, broadcast ...

where she remained for eight years before moving to

in 2000 as the first official traffic news reporter for weekday mornings. From Saturday 9 June 2012, and for eight consecutive weeks, Bowles presented her own show on

BBC Radio Wales BBC Radio Wales is a Welsh radio station owned and operated by BBC Cymru Wales, a division of the BBC. It began broadcasting on 13 November 1978, replacing the 'Radio 4 Wales' opt-out service (previously the Welsh Home Service). Radio Wales br ...

, featuring guests such as

Ken Bruce Kenneth Robertson Bruce (born 2 February 1951) is a British broadcaster who is best known for hosting his long-running weekday mid-morning show on BBC Radio 2 from 1986 to 1990, and then again since 1992. Early life and career Bruce was born a ...

with whom she appeared as travel reporter on his show on

. Since 2 November 2014, she has presented a weekly Sunday afternoon show on

. On 16 March 2018, during

The Chris Evans Breakfast Show ''The Chris Evans Breakfast Show'' (currently referred to on-air due to sponsorship reasons as ''The Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky'') is the name given to two versions of a radio programme hosted by broadcaster Chris Evans in the United ...

and

's mid-morning show, Bowles announced that she would be leaving

, after 18 years of broadcasting. Her last day was 29 March 2018. Bowles continues with her

broadcasting.

Personal and charitable activities

Bowles learnt to drive in a

Land Rover Land Rover is a British brand of predominantly four-wheel drive, off-road capable vehicles, owned by multinational car manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), since 2008 a subsidiary of India's Tata Motors. JLR currently builds Land Rovers ...

and became a mascot for the marque after competing in the 2004 run of the

Macmillan 4x4 UK Challenge The Macmillan 4x4 UK Challenge is an annual navigational endurance challenge event. It is open to any road legal 4x4 vehicle in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support. The event has run since 2002 over one weekend in March each year and consists of a s ...

and co-presenting the

Heritage Motor Centre The British Motor Museum in Warwickshire, England holds the world's largest collection of historic British cars, with over 300 cars on display from the British Motor Industry Heritage Trust and the Jaguar Heritage Trust. History The creation o ...

Land Rover show from 2005 to 2010. In the August 2013 issue of Land Rover Owner international magazine Bowles was a guest columnist 'for one month only' discussing her childhood experiences in Land Rovers and her time training for the

Camel Trophy Occasionally called "The Olympics of 4x4", Camel Trophy was an off-road vehicle oriented competition that was held annually between 1980 and 2000, and it was best known for its use of Land Rover vehicles over challenging terrain. The event to ...

. She is an ambassador for Bobath Children's Therapy Centre Wales, a registered charity based in Cardiff that provides specialist

Bobath The Bobath concept is an approach to neurological rehabilitation that is applied in patient assessment and treatment (such as with adults after stroke or children with cerebral palsy). The goal of applying the Bobath concept is to promote motor ...

therapy to children from all over Wales who have

cerebral palsy Cerebral palsy (CP) is a group of movement disorders that appear in early childhood. Signs and symptoms vary among people and over time, but include poor coordination, stiff muscles, weak muscles, and tremors. There may be problems with sensa ...

. In the November 2007 Children in Need week a "Money can't buy" experience was auctioned which included spending a day with her at Land Rover and other automotive experiences under the banner of 'Petrolheads', and the item raised £22,000 for the charity. As of June 2009 Bowles was living in

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * ...

but regularly travelled back to her family home in the village of

near

Caerphilly Caerphilly (, ; cy, Caerffili, ) is a town and community in Wales. It is situated at the southern end of the Rhymney Valley. It is north of Cardiff and northwest of Newport. It is the largest town in Caerphilly County Borough, and lies wit ...

References

External links

Lynn Bowles's profile
at

BBC Online BBC Online, formerly known as BBCi, is the BBC's online service. It is a large network of websites including such high-profile sites as BBC News and BBC Sport, Sport, the on-demand video and radio services branded BBC iPlayer and BBC Sounds, t ...

''Lynn Bowles''
(BBC Radio Wales) {{DEFAULTSORT:Bowles, Lynn Living people Mass media people from Cardiff British radio personalities British radio presenters BBC Radio Wales presenters BBC Radio 2 presenters Year of birth missing (living people)

Early life

Broadcasting career

Personal and charitable activities

See also

References

External links