Richard James Bowerman died on 3 December 2022. It seems fitting that a tribute to him should reach the pages of The Bradfieldian since he had for a long time retained strong links with the College.
Richard came to Bradfield from Downside School, Purley in the summer term of 1953. At Bradfield he had considerable success as a sportsman, particularly in soccer, cricket and cross country running.
Maths was positively his best subject, a factor that helped to draw him into accountancy for a career. On leaving school he became an articled clerk in a city firm of accountants. After qualifying, in due course he became a Partner and managed the Eton and Datchet offices of his firm. Before retiring Richard ran his own practice.
Richard was never happier than when playing or watching sport with his friends. In adulthood, he played golf, cricket and tennis, and enjoyed a period playing soccer for the Old Bradfieldians.
He spent most of his married life in the Thames Valley area. Having come from farming stock, (his elder brother, Bryan, became a farmer in Surrey and Devon) Richard enjoyed growing vegetables, fruit and flowers with his wife, Yvonne. They both had a great liking for nature. For many of those years they lived in Winkfield in southeast Berkshire, next to the parish of St Michael and All Angels in Warfield where he has been laid to rest.
His funeral service revealed Richard as someone who had believed in God from a young age. He was a steadfast Christian and his Bradfield experience with its strong clerical traditions was clearly memorable for him. He enjoyed the organ being played in church and listening to church music generally. He especially liked the church music of John Rutter.
It is noteworthy that Richard was a considerable giver to charities: he was a long-standing and generous supporter of both Bradfield College and the Bradfield Club in Peckham; among other charities he and his wife had a considerable interest in a voluntary organisation that supports young men recovering from drug addiction.
Richard was a modest, very amiable and generous man who made the most of his talents, doubtless well aware of the benefits that a good education had conferred on him. He will be missed by many.
On a personal note, I should point out that I would never have come to write this obituary for Richard if we had not developed a considerable friendship in recent years because of our link with Downside, the Prep School that we had both attended before coming to the same House at Bradfield. For most of the years between 2010 and 2017 we were together at Downside annual reunion lunches that included up to thirty old boys at the peak, marking the affection we and others had had for that school.
We were also pleased to have the opportunity to go together to two Bradfield Tempus Fugit lunches, deliberately making a long day of it on both occasions to revisit and reflect on the scenes of our youth. We were glad to see many well remembered buildings unchanged externally, but of course we could not help noticing an astounding improvement in facilities which made it seem more like a top-class hotel than the school we had known more than six and a half decades ago!
William Shutt (E 52 -57)
