(RETIRED MASTER BUILDER)
(522)
Born on 9 October 1907 at Lincoln. He later moved with his family to Scunthorpe where he spent his childhood days and where, during the First World War, he saw German Zeppelins coming over to bomb the local iron and steel works. The family then moved to Newarke-on-Trent, where he was educated at the Magnus Grammar School, which was founded in 1613. On leaving school at the age of 16 years, Herbert Sowden moved with the family to Leicester where he entered his father’s building business and served his apprenticeship.
He married Miss Eveline Howe in Leicester in 1928 and they had two daughters, June and Valerie.
In 1930 Councillor Sowden founded his own firm which became H. Sowden and Company Limited, Building Contractors, 127 Tudor Road, Leicester.
Councillor Sowden was a member of the Air Raid Precaution Service in the early years of the Second World War and was a member of a heavy rescue team in Leicester during the night of 19 November 1940. This was Leicester’s worst air raid of the war and was the occasion on which the Town Hall suffered significant bomb damage. In 1942 he volunteered for the Royal Air Force and was engaged in airfield construction. He served in the United Kingdom, France, Belgium and the Far East before being demobilised in 1946 with the rank of Flying Officer.
He was first elected to the City Council in 1960 as a Conservative Councillor for the De Montfort Ward following two unsuccessful attempts in the Wycliffe Ward in 1952. He lost his seat in 1963 but was returned the following year for the Westcotes Ward, which he represented from 1964 onwards except for a three year break from 1974-1977. He served on most of the major Committees including the Estates, General Purposes, Policy and Resources and Recreation Committees plus the Establishment Committee of which he was the Chairman prior to Local Government re-organisation in 1974. In 1970 he was elevated to the Aldermanic bench of the City Council (The office of Alderman was abolished by the Local Government Act of 1972).
In his younger days, Councillor Sowden played rugby for Aylestone St James. He was also an angler. Bowls was another sport enjoyed by Councillor Sowden, he was a member of the Humberstone Park Bowling Club of which he served as President and he went on to be the President of the Leicester and District Parks Bowling Association.
He was a Freemason and a member of the Grandstone Lodge in Leicester.
In 1964 Councillor Sowden was elected President of the Leicester Branch of the National Federation of Building Trade Employers Association and he was elected President of the Midland Regional Branch of the Federation in 1971. He was a Fellow of the Institute of Building.
An active Party worker, Councillor Sowden was the President of the West Leicester Conservative Association and Chairman of the Westcotes Ward Conservative Association. Councillor Sowden was the Founder Chairman of the City of Leicester Social Club.
He was appointed High Bailiff of the City on 18 May 1978 for the year 1978-79.
Councillor Sowden was elected to the office of Lord Mayor of the City on 15 May 1980. He chose his wife Eveline to be his Lady Mayoress.
The outstanding visit to the City during Councillor Sowden’s Year of Office was that of His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales on 10 February 1981. In his tour of the City, which involved an extremely busy schedule, His Royal Highness visited the refurbished YMCA in East Street, the Highfields Induction and Training Scheme Centre, Evington Road followed by lunch at the Town Hall which was hosted by the Lord Mayor. In the afternoon His Royal Highness visited T.W. Kempton Limited, Hosiery Manufacturers, Archdeacon Lane, the Belgrave Neighbourhood Centre, Rothley Street, Advanced Tapes Limited, Abbey Meadows and the Leicester Engineering Training Company Limited on Aylestone Road.
Another important Royal occasion was the 80th Birthday of Her Majesty The Queen Mother on 4 August 1980, which the Lord Mayor commemorated by arranging a successful Appeal for the planting of an Avenue of 80 young oak trees in Victoria Park.
In September 1980, the Lord Mayor visited Strasbourg to take part in the 20th Anniversary Celebrations of the twinning of the two cities. He presented the Mayor of Strasbourg with a framed copy of ‘Aspects of Leicester’ and a drawn feature map of the City by Brian Hollingshead. His busy programme included an aerial tour of Strasbourg and a visit to the Palais de Europe, the home of the Council of Europe.
The Right Honourable Sir Harold Wilson, the former Prime Minster, visited Leicester on 6 March 1981 to present a number of awards to small businesses. The Lord Mayor welcomed him to the City. Sir Harold was received by Councillor Sowden at the Town Hall and the presentation of the awards took place at Cobden House, Humberstone Road.
In May 1981, Councillor Sowden visited the 2nd Battalion, the Royal Anglian Regiment in Londonderry. He told the many Leicester men in the Battalion that he was ‘proud of them.’ The Lord Mayor took with him a whole Stilton cheese, a tradition followed by every Lord Mayor visiting Leicester troops based in Northern Ireland. Councillor Sowden met the Mayor of Londonderry, Mrs Marleen Jefferson, who took him on a tour of the 19th century Guildhall and presented him with a plaque of the City of Londonderry’s Coat of Arms.
The Lord Mayor broke with tradition in that he did not make an Appeal on behalf of any single charity but chose to launch an Appeal from which the proceeds would be shared by all voluntary bodies who were in need of help. A number of organisations, within the city, benefited significantly as a result of the Appeal.
Councillor Sowden’s Year of Office was concluded on 21 May 1981 whereupon he was appointed Deputy Lord Mayor for the year 1981-82.
He died in Leicester on 19 December 1983, aged 76 years.
