Herbert Bowden, Baron Aylestone

{{Short description|British politician (1905-1994)}} {{Redirect|Herbert Bowden|Australian rules footballer|Herbert Bowden (footballer)}} {{Use British English|date=July 2016}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2016}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = The Right Honourable | name = The Lord Aylestone | honorific_suffix = {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|CH|CBE|PC}} | image = Herbert Bowden 1965.jpg | image_size = | alt = | caption = Bowden in 1965 | office = Secretary of State for Commonwealth Affairs | term_start = 1 August 1966 | term_end = 29 August 1967 | prime_minister = Harold Wilson | predecessor = Arthur Bottomley (Commonwealth Relations) | successor = George Thomson | office1 = Leader of the House of Commons Lord President of the Council | term_start1 = 16 October 1964 | term_end1 = 11 August 1966 | prime_minister1 = Harold Wilson | predecessor1 = Selwyn Lloyd ''(Leader of Commons)'' Quintin Hogg ''(President of Council)'' | successor1 = Richard Crossman | office2 = Opposition Chief Whip of the House of Commons | term_start2 = 10 June 1955 | term_end2 = 16 October 1964 | deputy2 = Ernest Popplewell (1955–59) John Taylor (1959–62) Edward Short (1962–64) | leader2 = Clement Attlee Hugh Gaitskell George Brown Harold Wilson | predecessor2 = William Whiteley | successor2 = Martin Redmayne | office3 = Opposition Deputy Chief Whip of the House of Commons | term_start3 = 6 November 1951 | term_end3 = 10 June 1955 | leader3 = Clement Attlee | predecessor3 = Cedric Drewe | successor3 = Ernest Popplewell | office6 = Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal | term_start6 = 3 November 1967 | term_end6 = 30 April 1994 Life Peerage | office7 = Member of Parliament for Leicester South West {{small|Leicester South (1945–1950)}} | term_start7 = 5 July 1945 | term_end7 = 2 November 1967 | predecessor7 = Charles Waterhouse | successor7 = Tom Boardman | birth_name = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1905|01|20|df=yes}} | birth_place = Cardiff, Wales, UK | death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1994|04|30|1905|01|20}} | death_place = Worthing, West Sussex, UK | party = ILP {{small|(until 1936)}} Labour {{small|(1936–81)}} SDP {{small|(1981–88)}} 'Continuing' SDP {{small|(1988–90)}} Liberal Democrats {{small|(1992–94)}} | other_party = | height = | spouse = {{plainlist| * {{marriage|Louisa Brown|1928|1992|reason=died}} * {{marriage|Vicki Clayton|1993}} }} | relations = | children = | parents = Herbert Bowden & Henrietta Gould | relatives = | education = | alma_mater = | occupation = | profession = }} '''Herbert William Bowden, Baron Aylestone''' (20 January 1905 – 30 April 1994) was a British Labour politician.

==Early life== Born in Cardiff, Wales,<ref name=DWB>{{cite DWB|id=s8-BOWD-WIL-1905|title=Bowden, Herbert William, Baron Aylestone (1905–1994), politician|date=1 June 2011|author=David Lewis Jones|access-date=6 June 2022}}</ref> Bowden was the son of Herbert Bowden, a baker, and his wife Henrietta (née Gould). Bowden later recalled that "I was born with the smell of bread in my nostrils and lived around the bakehouses. I always had one thought in mind – never to be employed in them."<ref name="Telegraphobit">"Obituaries: Lord Aylestone", ''Daily Telegraph'', 2 May 1994, p. 21.</ref> After completing elementary school he opened a tobacconist's shop, but following the collapse of his business during the Great Depression he left Cardiff to look for work elsewhere, eventually becoming a radio salesman in Leicester.<ref name=DWB/>

==Political career== Bowden had been a member of the Independent Labour Party (ILP) as a young man, but sided with the Labour Party when the two parties disagreed over how best to support the Republican faction in the Spanish Civil War.<ref name=DWB/>

In 1938, he was elected to sit on Leicester City Council, and later that year became president of the city's Labour Party.

===Commons=== Having served as a flying officer in the Royal Air Force during World War II, Bowden was elected MP for Leicester South at the 1945 general election, and then for Leicester South West from 1950 until his retirement from the House of Commons in 1967. He was appointed a whip in 1949 and a Lord Commissioner of the Treasury in 1950. From 1951 onwards, he was Deputy Chief Whip, then Chief Whip throughout Labour's years in opposition. Bowden was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1953 Coronation Honours.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=39863 |date=1 June 1953 |page=2954 |supp=y}}</ref>

Bowden was regarded as being on the right of the Labour Party, and supported Hugh Gaitskell in his battles with the left before switching his allegiance to Harold Wilson following Gaitskell's death in 1963.<ref name="Timesobit">"Obituaries: Lord Aylestone", ''The Times'', 2 May 1994, p. 17.</ref> He was, as the ''Daily Telegraph'' later commented, somewhat "traditional" in his mindset, representing the "authentic... old hat, passé, reactionary voice of the Labour Party", but his forthright attitude to party discipline (which had earned him the sobriquet "The Sergeant Major" amongst Labour MPs) made him an efficient and much-respected parliamentary whip.<ref name="Telegraphobit"/><ref name="Timesobit"/> Thus, when Labour returned to power in 1964, Bowden was appointed Leader of the House of Commons and Lord President of the Council, having become a Privy Counsellor in 1962. In 1966, he was moved to the new post of Secretary of State for Commonwealth Affairs, serving until 1967. On 1 September 1967 he succeeded Lord Hill as chairman of the Independent Television Authority, and stood down from the Commons two months later.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001180/19670831/063/0009|title=Lord Hill's successor Herbert Bowden new Chairman of ITA|date=31 August 1967|work=The Stage and Television Today|access-date=10 July 2019|issue=445|page=9|via=British Newspaper Archive|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

===Lords=== On 20 September 1967, Bowden was created a life peer as '''Baron Aylestone''', ''of Aylestone in the City of Leicester'', taking the Labour whip.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=44412 |date=21 September 1967 |page=10287}}</ref> He was appointed a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour in the 1975 Birthday Honours, and from 1984 to 1992 was a Deputy Speaker of the House of Lords.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=46593 |date=14 June 1975 |page=7390 |supp=y}}</ref><ref name="WW">{{Who's Who | title=AYLESTONE, Baron (Herbert William Bowden) | id = U170929 | type = was | volume = 2023 | edition = online}}</ref>

To many people's surprise,<ref name="Timesobit"/> he left Labour to join the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in 1981. Remaining with the SDP throughout the party's existence, after its demise in 1988 he chose to follow David Owen's breakaway 'continuing' SDP rather than support the merger with the Liberals. When the Owenite rump itself dissolved two years later, Aylestone sat in the Lords as an 'Independent Social Democrat' before joining the Liberal Democrats in 1992.<ref name="Timesobit"/><ref>Martin Linton, "Top sports events 'must stay with BBC and ITV': Lords debate", ''The Guardian'', 6 June 1990, p. 6.</ref>

==Death== Lord Aylestone died in 1994, aged 89, in Worthing, Sussex, and was survived by his second wife and a daughter from his first marriage.<ref name=DWB/><ref name="WW"/>

==References== {{Reflist}}

{{s-start}} {{s-par|uk}} {{s-bef| before = Charles Waterhouse}} {{s-ttl| title = Member of Parliament for Leicester South | years = 1945–1950}} {{s-non| reason = Constituency abolished}}

{{s-new|constituency}} {{s-ttl| title = Member of Parliament for Leicester South West | years = 1950–1967}} {{s-aft| after = Tom Boardman}}

{{s-off}} {{s-bef| before = Quintin Hogg }} {{s-ttl| title = Lord President of the Council | years = 1964–1966 }} {{s-aft| rows = 2 | after = Richard Crossman }} {{s-bef| before = Selwyn Lloyd }} {{s-ttl| title = Leader of the House of Commons | years = 1964–1966 }}

{{s-bef| before = Frederick Lee | as = Secretary of State for the Colonies}} {{s-ttl| title = Secretary of State for Commonwealth Affairs| | years = 1966–1967 | rows = 2}} {{s-aft| after = George Morgan Thomson | rows = 2}} {{s-bef| before = Arthur Bottomley | as = Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations}} {{s-ppo}} {{s-bef|before=Arthur Pearson}} {{s-ttl|title=Deputy Labour Chief Whip of the House of Commons|years=1951–1955}} {{s-aft|after=Ernest Popplewell}} {{s-bef|before=William Whiteley}} {{s-ttl|title=Labour Chief Whip of the House of Commons|years=1955–1964}} {{s-aft|after=Edward Short}} {{s-media}} {{s-bef| before = Charles Hill}} {{s-ttl| title = Chairman of the Independent Television Authority | years = 1967–1972}} {{s-non| reason = ITA became the IBA}} {{s-new}} {{s-ttl| title = Chairman of the Independent Broadcasting Authority | years = 1972–1975}} {{s-aft| after = Bridget Plowden}} {{s-end}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aylestone, Herbert Bowden, Baron}} Category:1905 births Category:1994 deaths Category:Politicians from Cardiff Bowden, Herbert Category:Social Democratic Party (UK) life peers Category:Social Democratic Party (UK, 1988–1990) peers Category:Liberal Democrats (UK) life peers Category:British secretaries of state for Commonwealth affairs Category:Lords president of the Council Category:Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Category:Members of the Order of the Companions of Honour Category:ITV people Bowden, Herbert Bowden, Herbert Bowden, Herbert Bowden, Herbert Bowden, Herbert Bowden, Herbert Bowden, Herbert Category:UK MPs who were granted peerages Category:Life peers created by Elizabeth II Category:Leaders of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom Bowden, Herbert Category:Labour Party (UK) councillors Category:Royal Air Force personnel of World War II Category:People from Aylestone Category:Ministers in the Attlee governments, 1945–1951 Category:Ministers in the Wilson governments, 1964–1970 Category:Royal Air Force officers Category:Military personnel from Cardiff