Obituary: Edward Bowen, professional banker, amateur golfer and centenarian who lived a full and active life

BORN in Carnoustie in 1908, the son of Edward Bowen, an engineer who had moved to the Angus golfing town from Birmingham a few years earlier, EL Bowen was always known to the family as “Les” to distinguish him from his father, but was “Eddie” to most of his friends and his many professional and golfing colleagues.

Educated at Barry School and the Grove Academy, he left school with no particular career objective. Like his younger brother Stanley (later to become Crown Agent for Scotland) he spent much of his free time playing golf or caddying at Carnoustie and Panmure Golf Club, near the family home in Barry Road.

It was this activity which was to lead to his subsequent long professional career. He often recalled that he had been with JJ Webster Baillie, Provost of Carnoustie, who, after driving off the second tee at the Championship Links, asked his young caddy what he intended to do on leaving school. On receiving no meaningful response, an instruction was given to report to the manager of the Bank of Scotland, High Street, Carnoustie on Monday morning and “tell him I sent you”.

There ensued a career of more than 45 years in the bank. After an apprenticeship in Carnoustie, Eddie moved to the inspectors’ branch at the head office in Edinburgh. He travelled widely, made many friends and learned what lay at the heart of banking.

He remained in the inspectors’ branch until 1947 when he was given his first managerial posting – by good fortune to Arbroath, enabling him to resume his golf at Carnoustie. A particular pleasure to him was that the Arbroath branch of the Bank of Scotland pulled off the feat of producing the winner and runner-up in the bank’s annual competition at Gleneagles. The branch accountant, Alec Kidd, won the event, knocking his manager into second place.

In 1950 Eddie moved to Reform Street, Dundee, as assistant manager of the branch office there. The experience there, at a time when Dundee was a flourishing commercial centre, prepared him for his next move to Aberdeen as manager of the Union Street branch.

Although well before the oil boom, this was a busy branch with many significant customers in the fishing and farming communities who learned the value of Eddie’s wise counsel and sound advice. His ability and professional standing had plainly not gone unnoticed in the higher echelons of the bank. On reaching what would have been the usual retirement age he was asked to stay on, and to move to Edinburgh to establish a training scheme for bank managers. His innovative method was to take managers on intensive two-week seminars, and for the next for years he became a semi-permanent resident of Peebles Hydro, where these were conducted.

A generation of Bank of Scotland managers benefited from his experience and knowledge. He retired in 1974, but was engaged for a further two years on the rationalising of various bank pension schemes.

For someone who hailed from Carnoustie it might be expected that golf featured strongly in his life. He was for many years a member of Carnoustie Golf Club. He became a member of Lothianburn Golf Club during his first spell in Edinburgh, and resumed his association with that club when he returned. He was secretary and captain of the seniors section and delighted to be invited to become honorary life president.

As a player, he competed in major amateur competitions in Angus and the Lothians. He was a regular member of the Lothianburn and Bank of Scotland teams. He continued to play golf regularly until well into retirement, although his interest waned when he could no longer maintain a single-figure handicap.

There can be few who have enjoyed their 100th birthday as much as Eddie. Still fit and alert – he had bought himself a new car when he was 93 – he spoke to a gathering of friends and family eloquently and without notes for more than 10 minutes before announcing that, at his time of life, he had spoken long enough.

He was royally entertained by his Lothianburn friends. Of greatest pleasure to him was a party held in the head office of the Bank of Scotland at which he was presented with a £100 note in an acrylic block and was appointed a fellow of the Institute of Bankers in Scotland.

He retained, up to the time of his death, remarkable clarity of mind with a capacity to talk of events of 70 to 80 years before, as well as the ability to discuss current affairs with knowledge and authority. He remembered seeing a Zeppelin over Carnoustie.

He often spoke of the 1931 Open there, when he acted as a marker and had a tense stand-off with Leonard Crawley, the English amateur champion of that year, in the presence of Gene Sarazen over the application of a local rule which allowed relief from clumps of whin on the fairway.

He viewed the banking crisis of 2008 with an air of resignation and a shake of the head – “It would never have happened in my day.” When a nephew, visiting him from Australia in his 100th year, commented that the stock market was not doing too well, he responded by saying: “But the Australian Stock Market is all right”, and proceeded to discuss the differences in detail.

Raised in the traditions of the Scottish Episcopal Church, Eddie became a member of the congregation of Christ Church, Morningside, in 1940. He was a staunch attendee over the years, maintaining a firm if conservative interest in church affairs. He served as treasurer for the Diocese of Edinburgh for many years.

But perhaps his greatest contribution was to serve as friend, counsellor and confidant to clergymen of all ranks who looked upon this wise, old man of deep and dry humour with both respect and affection.

Eddie Bowen is survived by his son Stanley, a resident of Fonthill, Ontario, and by his daughter Jennifer. His wife, Alice Simpson, died in 1965. He had three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. His sister, Elizabeth Harper, who he spoke to by telephone every day, also survives him. Aged 99 years, she continues to live in the family home in Carnoustie.

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