Sir Harold Bowden, 2nd Baronet, GBE (9 July 1880 – 24 August 1960), was the chairman and chief executive of the

Raleigh Bicycle Company The Raleigh Bicycle Company is a British bicycle manufacturer based in Nottingham, England and founded by Woodhead and Angois in 1885. Using Raleigh as their brand name, it is one of the oldest bicycle companies in the world. After being acqui ...

and

Sturmey-Archer Sturmey-Archer was a manufacturing company originally from Nottingham, England. It primarily produced bicycle hub gears, brakes and a great many other sundry bicycle components, most prominently during their heyday as a subsidiary of the Raleig ...

Ltd from his father's death in 1921 until his own retirement in 1938. He also served as President of the British Cycle and Motor-Cycle Manufacturers and Trader Union, President of the Motor and Cycle Trades Benevolent Fund, and Chairman of the

British Olympic Association The British Olympic Association (BOA) is the National Olympic Committee for the United Kingdom. It is responsible for organising and overseeing the participation of athletes from the Great Britain and Northern Ireland Olympic Team, at both ...

for the 1932 Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles. His achievements were celebrated in 1938 when ''

Cycling Weekly ''Cycling Weekly'' is a British cycling magazine. It is published by Future and is devoted to the sport and pastime of cycling. It used to be affectionately referred to by British club cyclists as "The Comic".

'' awarded him his own page in the

Golden Book of Cycling The ''Golden Book of Cycling'' was created in 1932 by ''Cycling'', a British cycling magazine, to celebrate "the Sport and Pastime of Cycling by recording the outstanding rides, deeds and accomplishments of cyclists, officials and administrat ...

, which is now held in 'The Pedal Club' archive.

Personal life

Sir Harold was the son of international business tycoon

Sir Frank Bowden, 1st Baronet Sir Frank Bowden, 1st Baronet, (30 January 1848 – 25 April 1921) was a British businessman and inventor. He was a founder of the Raleigh Bicycle Company. Biography Frank Bowden was born in Devon, England, and made a fortune in property develo ...

and Amelia Frances Houston, daughter of Colonel Alexander Houston of California. Born in San Francisco USA, the fifth of six children, he had four older sisters and a younger brother. He was educated at

Clifton College ''The spirit nourishes within'' , established = 160 years ago , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent boarding and day school , religion = Christian , president = , head_label = Head of College , head ...

, Bristol, and at

Clare College Clare College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. The college was founded in 1326 as University Hall, making it the second-oldest surviving college of the University after Peterhouse. It was refounded ...

, Cambridge University. Harold variously lived at 'Beeston Fields' manor house, Beeston, 'Ruddington Grange' and 'South Manor House' at

Ruddington Ruddington is a large village in the Borough of Rushcliffe in Nottinghamshire, England. The village is south of Nottingham and northwest of Loughborough. It had a population of 6,441 at the 2001 Census, increasing to 7,216 at the 2011 Censu ...

. Harold was a keen cyclist and oarsman, and a member of the Pickwick Bicycle Club, founded in 1870. It is now self-proclaimed as the 'oldest surviving bicycle club in the world' although now predominantly a luncheon club. On 11 May 1916 he purchased a new Brough motorcycle, registration AL 4659. It was a 500cc model 'H', which he sold on 22 February 1919. Harold Bowden married four times. He married Vera Whitaker, daughter of

Joseph Whitaker Joseph Whitaker may refer to: *Joseph Whitaker (industrialist) (1789–1870), American iron master and landowner *Joseph Whitaker (naturalist) (1850–1932), English naturalist *Joseph Whitaker (ornithologist) (1850–1936), Sicilian-English ornith ...

Mansfield Mansfield is a market town and the administrative centre of Mansfield District in Nottinghamshire, England. It is the largest town in the wider Mansfield Urban Area (followed by Sutton-in-Ashfield). It gained the Royal Charter of a market tow ...

, on 7 July 1908, and they had two children, Frank Houston Bowden and Ruth Bowden before they divorced in 1919. He was married to his second wife Muriel Smythe Ker-Douglas, daughter of William Ker-Douglas, from 18 January 1920 until her death in 1952. He married thirdly, June Bowden MacKay, daughter of Thomas Henry MacKay, on 4 November 1952. He married his fourth wife, Valerie Raymont Came, daughter of Richard Raymont Came, on 11 February 1957. Sir Harold succeeded to the baronetcy on the death of his father in 1921 and eight years later he was created a Knight Grand Cross, Order of the British Empire (G.B.E.). He was decorated with the award of Grand Cross, Order of the Phoenix of Greece. He died in

Winchester Winchester is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs Nation ...

England after a short illness.

Career

Raleigh Bicycles

Sir Frank Bowden founded the

in 1887 in Nottingham, and Harold became chairman and Managing Director on the death of his father in 1921, a position he then held for 17 years. He was also chairman of Sturmey-Archer Gears Ltd which had been taken over by his father in 1902. Under Harold's leadership Raleigh continued to lead the industry, introduced many further innovations and acquired other well-known cycle companies such as:

Humber The Humber is a large tidal estuary on the east coast of Northern England. It is formed at Trent Falls, Faxfleet, by the confluence of the tidal rivers Ouse and Trent. From there to the North Sea, it forms part of the boundary between th ...

(1932),

Rudge-Whitworth Rudge Whitworth Cycles was a British bicycle, bicycle saddle, motorcycle and sports car wheel manufacturer that resulted from the merger of two bicycle manufacturers in 1894, Whitworth Cycle Co. of Birmingham, founded by Charles Henry Pug ...

, BSA and

Triumph The Roman triumph (Latin triumphus) was a celebration for a victorious military commander in ancient Rome. For later imitations, in life or in art, see Trionfo. Numerous later uses of the term, up to the present, are derived directly or indirectl ...

. Raleigh also manufactured motorcycles and the ''Safety Seven'' car from 1932-1937. By his retirement in 1938 production was 60,000 cycles per year from a works site that occupied 20 acres.

Service appointments

He was elected as President of the British Cycle & Motor Cycle Manufacturers' & Trader' Union on two occasions, holding office from 1921 to 1923. He was President of the Motor and Cycle Trades Benevolent Fund from 1924 to 1926 and the 1925 Banquet, attended by the Prince of Wales, raised a record sum of £10,000. In 1929 he was invested as a

Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...

(GBE). He was appointed to the office of

High Sheriff of Nottinghamshire This is a list of the High Sheriffs of the English county of Nottinghamshire. The High Sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown. Formerly the High Sheriff was the principal law enforcement officer in the county but over the centuri ...

in 1933. He served as Vice-president of the

Federation of British Industries The Federation of British Industries (FBI) was an employers' association in the United Kingdom. Founded by the Midlands industrialist Dudley Docker in 1916 as the United British Industries' Association, but renamed later that same year, it was ini ...

1932 Olympics

From 1930–34 he served as Chairman of the

, raising over £10,000 to take the British team to Los Angeles for the 1932 Summer Olympic Games. He accompanied the team to America for the games. ''The Rotarian'' magazine of October 1932 reports that Bowden was quoted in the ''Los Angeles Times'' saying : The ''

Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper i ...

'' on Friday 10 March 1933 reported that whilst presiding at an Olympic dinner in London, Bowden stated that ... ''whatever may be felt about the shortcomings of the

League of Nations The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference that ...

, the progress of international sport should create optimism concerning the League.''

The Golden Book

Sir Harold Bowden's achievements were celebrated in 1938 when

awarded him his own page in the

Notes

References

* *

External links

Raleigh Bikes

Picture of Sir Harold Bowden, 1955

* [http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/83804347/Hulton-Archive German ambassador Leopold von Hoesch (1881 ? 1936, left) with Sir Harold Bowden, Chairman of the British Olympic Association, during a BOA dinner at the Savoy Hotel, London, 8 March 1933. (Photo by A. Hudson/Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)]
National Portrait gallery, 5 portraits of Sir Harold Bowden

National Portrait Gallery, Muriel Smythe (née Ker-Douglas), Lady Bowden (died 1952), Second wife of Sir Harold Bowden, 2nd Bt; daughter of William Ker-Douglas

Lady Amelia Frances Bowden (née Houston) (died 1937), Wife of Sir Frank Bowden, 1st Bt; daughter of Alex Houston
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bowden, Harold 1880 births 1960 deaths 20th-century English businesspeople Baronets in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire People educated at Clifton College Alumni of Clare College, Cambridge Grand Crosses of the Order of the Phoenix (Greece) High Sheriffs of Nottinghamshire 20th-century British inventors