Pete Bowler
Encyclopedia
Peter "Pete" Bowler was an English
environmental
campaigner, natural historian
, wildlife photographer, journalist
and politician
. He was best known for his regular "Country Diary
" column in The Guardian
newspaper, and his work as Campaign Officer and spokesman for the consumer organization
, Waterwatch.
in the industrial English Midlands
, a youthful interest in politics led Bowler to become a Young Liberal
and he later won a seat on Amber Valley
council. His enthusiasm and energy impressed his fellow activists, and in the 1983 General Election
, Pete Bowler was invited to stand as the Liberal candidate for Rotherham
, South Yorkshire
. Rotherham was well known as a solid Labour Party
stronghold, and it was no surprise when he failed in his attempt. Undaunted, he stood for the local elections, winning a seat on Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council to become the town’s only Liberal councillor
. He was a vigorous campaigner against local complacency about the effects of industrial pollution
on the environment, and he quickly became a thorn in the side of his fellow councillors.
– his attempt to resolve this was an early example of his later campaigns for better water services. He was also successful in fighting on behalf of several small communities threatened by big business or bureaucracy
.
During the 1994-95 drought, he became incensed by the poor performance and evident mismanagement of the newly privatised
water services and its detrimental effects on the public and on the natural environment. Bowler became the full time campaign officer and spokesman for Waterwatch, a consumer watchdog organization set up to monitor the privatised water and sewerage companies and to campaign for better services. He set out to make Yorkshire Water
improve its performance and was successful in forcing the firm (and later other water companies) to change their policies, using agile media work and careful mastery of complicated data. The knowledge he had built up during this and subsequent campaigns led to him becoming a regular media spokesman on all matters concerning water, often clashing with OFWAT, the government body set up to regulate the industry. In his capacity as Waterwatch spokesman, Bowler was also asked to give evidence at several local and Parliamentary enquiries concerning the public water supply.
for Amateur Gardening
and Your Garden magazines. In the mid-1990s, he began a regular fortnightly "Country Diary" column for the Guardian newspaper, in which he described the wealth of wildlife in his local region of South Yorkshire, an area widely considered to be an industrial wasteland. His articles have been praised for being always immediately accessible to the reader, delivering expert knowledge in a simple yet effective format.
s. He became a skilled wildlife photographer and joined the local naturalists' society, learning to identify plants and wildlife in the field by attending regular field meetings and surveys. A champion of the amateur naturalist, he bemoaned the decline of the traditional identification skills formerly fostered by these societies and always emphasised the important role of local amateur enthusiasts in wildlife conservation. Working with English Nature
and as Information Officer for the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust
, he became a passionate advocate and campaigner for protected species, particularly water voles and great crested newt
s (a lifelong interest from his boyhood days). In his later work as a consultant he carried out his own wildlife surveys, becoming an expert at tracking small mammals by their droppings, and playing a significant part in helping the cause of local and regional biodiversity
.
, Derbyshire, and he never lost his distinctive Derbyshire accent. He left school at 16 and his first job was making bicycle frames. He then became a salesman for soap products, travelling in and around the East Midlands, and later a salesman for a brewery. The temporary loss of his driving licence in the early 1990s meant that he was unable to continue working as a travelling salesman and he also gave up his unpaid position as an elected Borough Councillor. Forced to find alternative employment, he embarked upon a successful second career as a freelance journalist, becoming increasingly well known for his campaigning and his appearances in the media, where he was often interviewed for his views on current environmental issues.
Despite being known for his genial and friendly manner, he was proud of his confrontations with government and big business, and frequently filled in the word ’troublemaker’ on forms requesting his occupation, occasionally changing it to 'shit-stirrer'. His motto, on everything from his battles with water companies to animal surveys (one of which he was doing when he died), was: "You show me a pile of crap, and I'll show you who did it."
and a fellow activist. Their daughters, Becky and Sarah, share their father’s enthusiasm for the environment. In 2002, aged only 12, Sarah Bowler was chosen as a delegate to the International Children’s Conference on the Environment in Canada. Encouraged by her father, she set up the award winning website Cool Kids For A Cool Climate an international initiative to alert children to the effects of global warming and the means to counteract it, by planting trees in their home countries. Although still at school, Sarah is now the environmental consultant on the CBBC
TV programme ‘Level Up
’
Pete also has two children from his first marriage to Jane (née Beacroft). His sons, David (born August 1980) and Simon (born May 1982) never saw Pete after he separated from their mother Jane in late 1982.
David is a successful accountant, and is a partner in the growing Derby firm Sibbalds. Simon has followed in the footsteps of his father and uncle, and works as a salesman in the textile industry - something he is very good at!
in September 2005, whilst carrying out a survey of water voles for Scarborough
Council. His unconventional woodland burial
in South Yorkshire, held without any formal ceremony, was attended by over a hundred friends and colleagues. Interred with him in his biodegradable wicker
coffin was his collection of nutshells, whose varying marks made by different bites and nibbles helped him to plot the Yorkshire populations of wood mice, bank voles and other small mammals.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
environmental
Environmental movement
The environmental movement, a term that includes the conservation and green politics, is a diverse scientific, social, and political movement for addressing environmental issues....
campaigner, natural historian
Natural history
Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards observational rather than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, natural history is the systematic study...
, wildlife photographer, journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
and politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...
. He was best known for his regular "Country Diary
Country Diary
Country Diary is a daily natural history column in the English newspaper The Guardian, first published in November 1906. It is also now freely available on the newspaper's website. Past and present contributors include Pete Bowler, Arnold Boyd, Mark Cocker, Thomas Coward, Harry Griffin, Jim Perrin...
" column in The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
newspaper, and his work as Campaign Officer and spokesman for the consumer organization
Consumer organization
Consumer organizations are advocacy groups that seek to protect people from corporate abuse like unsafe products, predatory lending, false advertising, astroturfing and pollution.Consumer organizations may operate via protests, campaigning or lobbying...
, Waterwatch.
Political career
Born and brought up in Ripley, DerbyshireRipley, Derbyshire
Ripley is a town in the Amber Valley area of Derbyshire in England.- Earliest history :Not much information is available as to when Ripley was founded, but it existed at the time of the Domesday Book, when it was held by a man called Levenot....
in the industrial English Midlands
English Midlands
The Midlands, or the English Midlands, is the traditional name for the area comprising central England that broadly corresponds to the early medieval Kingdom of Mercia. It borders Southern England, Northern England, East Anglia and Wales. Its largest city is Birmingham, and it was an important...
, a youthful interest in politics led Bowler to become a Young Liberal
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
and he later won a seat on Amber Valley
Amber Valley
Amber Valley is a local government district and borough in Derbyshire, England. It takes its name from the River Amber and covers a semi-rural area with a number of small towns formerly based around coal mining and engineering...
council. His enthusiasm and energy impressed his fellow activists, and in the 1983 General Election
United Kingdom general election, 1983
The 1983 United Kingdom general election was held on 9 June 1983. It gave the Conservative Party under Margaret Thatcher the most decisive election victory since that of Labour in 1945...
, Pete Bowler was invited to stand as the Liberal candidate for Rotherham
Rotherham
Rotherham is a town in South Yorkshire, England. It lies on the River Don, at its confluence with the River Rother, between Sheffield and Doncaster. Rotherham, at from Sheffield City Centre, is surrounded by several smaller settlements, which together form the wider Metropolitan Borough of...
, South Yorkshire
South Yorkshire
South Yorkshire is a metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It has a population of 1.29 million. It consists of four metropolitan boroughs: Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham, and City of Sheffield...
. Rotherham was well known as a solid Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
stronghold, and it was no surprise when he failed in his attempt. Undaunted, he stood for the local elections, winning a seat on Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council to become the town’s only Liberal councillor
Councillor
A councillor or councilor is a member of a local government council, such as a city council.Often in the United States, the title is councilman or councilwoman.-United Kingdom:...
. He was a vigorous campaigner against local complacency about the effects of industrial pollution
Pollution
Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into a natural environment that causes instability, disorder, harm or discomfort to the ecosystem i.e. physical systems or living organisms. Pollution can take the form of chemical substances or energy, such as noise, heat or light...
on the environment, and he quickly became a thorn in the side of his fellow councillors.
Environmental campaigner
Whilst Bowler was serving as a councillor in Rotherham, his environmental interests were mainly concerned with their impact on people, an approach which he never abandoned. One of his early concerns was the many complaints he received about the smells and flies emanating from a local sewage farmSewage treatment
Sewage treatment, or domestic wastewater treatment, is the process of removing contaminants from wastewater and household sewage, both runoff and domestic. It includes physical, chemical, and biological processes to remove physical, chemical and biological contaminants...
– his attempt to resolve this was an early example of his later campaigns for better water services. He was also successful in fighting on behalf of several small communities threatened by big business or bureaucracy
Bureaucracy
A bureaucracy is an organization of non-elected officials of a governmental or organization who implement the rules, laws, and functions of their institution, and are occasionally characterized by officialism and red tape.-Weberian bureaucracy:...
.
During the 1994-95 drought, he became incensed by the poor performance and evident mismanagement of the newly privatised
Privatization
Privatization is the incidence or process of transferring ownership of a business, enterprise, agency or public service from the public sector to the private sector or to private non-profit organizations...
water services and its detrimental effects on the public and on the natural environment. Bowler became the full time campaign officer and spokesman for Waterwatch, a consumer watchdog organization set up to monitor the privatised water and sewerage companies and to campaign for better services. He set out to make Yorkshire Water
Yorkshire Water
Yorkshire Water is a water supply and treatment utility company servicing West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, the East Riding of Yorkshire, part of North Lincolnshire, most of North Yorkshire and part of Derbyshire, in England. The company has its origins in the Yorkshire Water Authority, one of ten...
improve its performance and was successful in forcing the firm (and later other water companies) to change their policies, using agile media work and careful mastery of complicated data. The knowledge he had built up during this and subsequent campaigns led to him becoming a regular media spokesman on all matters concerning water, often clashing with OFWAT, the government body set up to regulate the industry. In his capacity as Waterwatch spokesman, Bowler was also asked to give evidence at several local and Parliamentary enquiries concerning the public water supply.
Journalist
Pete Bowler’s career in journalism started with a few short articles on wildlife and gardening, illustrated with his own photographs, which were submitted to in-house corporate magazines and journals. He went on to write articles on wildlife gardeningWildlife gardening
A wildlife garden is an environment that is attractive to various forms of wildlife such as birds, amphibians, reptiles, insects, mammals and so on...
for Amateur Gardening
Amateur Gardening (magazine)
Amateur Gardening is a British magazine dedicated to gardening, including news, advice, feature articles and celebrity columns and interviews.Famous writers for the weekly magazine have included Alan Titchmarsh - who also worked there as deputy editor;...
and Your Garden magazines. In the mid-1990s, he began a regular fortnightly "Country Diary" column for the Guardian newspaper, in which he described the wealth of wildlife in his local region of South Yorkshire, an area widely considered to be an industrial wasteland. His articles have been praised for being always immediately accessible to the reader, delivering expert knowledge in a simple yet effective format.
Natural historian
Completely self-taught, Pete Bowler’s love of natural history began with solitary walks as a boy on old coal tips around Ripley, collecting newtNewt
A newt is an aquatic amphibian of the family Salamandridae, although not all aquatic salamanders are considered newts. Newts are classified in the subfamily Pleurodelinae of the family Salamandridae, and are found in North America, Europe and Asia...
s. He became a skilled wildlife photographer and joined the local naturalists' society, learning to identify plants and wildlife in the field by attending regular field meetings and surveys. A champion of the amateur naturalist, he bemoaned the decline of the traditional identification skills formerly fostered by these societies and always emphasised the important role of local amateur enthusiasts in wildlife conservation. Working with English Nature
English Nature
English Nature was the United Kingdom government agency that promoted the conservation of wildlife, geology and wild places throughout England between 1990 and 2006...
and as Information Officer for the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust
Yorkshire Wildlife Trust
The Yorkshire Wildlife Trust is a wildlife trust covering the traditional county of Yorkshire, England.The Trust is part of the UK-wide partnership of 47 Wildlife Trusts.It was formed in 1946, as the Yorkshire Naturalists’ Trust, essentially to preserve its first nature reserve Askham Bog on the...
, he became a passionate advocate and campaigner for protected species, particularly water voles and great crested newt
Great Crested Newt
The Great Crested Newt, also called Northern Crested Newt or Warty Newt is a newt in the family Salamandridae, found across Europe and parts of Asia.-Distribution:...
s (a lifelong interest from his boyhood days). In his later work as a consultant he carried out his own wildlife surveys, becoming an expert at tracking small mammals by their droppings, and playing a significant part in helping the cause of local and regional biodiversity
Biodiversity
Biodiversity is the degree of variation of life forms within a given ecosystem, biome, or an entire planet. Biodiversity is a measure of the health of ecosystems. Biodiversity is in part a function of climate. In terrestrial habitats, tropical regions are typically rich whereas polar regions...
.
Personal life
Pete Bowler was born and brought up in RipleyRipley, Derbyshire
Ripley is a town in the Amber Valley area of Derbyshire in England.- Earliest history :Not much information is available as to when Ripley was founded, but it existed at the time of the Domesday Book, when it was held by a man called Levenot....
, Derbyshire, and he never lost his distinctive Derbyshire accent. He left school at 16 and his first job was making bicycle frames. He then became a salesman for soap products, travelling in and around the East Midlands, and later a salesman for a brewery. The temporary loss of his driving licence in the early 1990s meant that he was unable to continue working as a travelling salesman and he also gave up his unpaid position as an elected Borough Councillor. Forced to find alternative employment, he embarked upon a successful second career as a freelance journalist, becoming increasingly well known for his campaigning and his appearances in the media, where he was often interviewed for his views on current environmental issues.
Despite being known for his genial and friendly manner, he was proud of his confrontations with government and big business, and frequently filled in the word ’troublemaker’ on forms requesting his occupation, occasionally changing it to 'shit-stirrer'. His motto, on everything from his battles with water companies to animal surveys (one of which he was doing when he died), was: "You show me a pile of crap, and I'll show you who did it."
Family
His wife Carol was a former mathematics student at Loughborough UniversityLoughborough University
Loughborough University is a research based campus university located in the market town of Loughborough, Leicestershire, in the East Midlands of England...
and a fellow activist. Their daughters, Becky and Sarah, share their father’s enthusiasm for the environment. In 2002, aged only 12, Sarah Bowler was chosen as a delegate to the International Children’s Conference on the Environment in Canada. Encouraged by her father, she set up the award winning website Cool Kids For A Cool Climate an international initiative to alert children to the effects of global warming and the means to counteract it, by planting trees in their home countries. Although still at school, Sarah is now the environmental consultant on the CBBC
CBBC
CBBC is one of two brand names used for the BBC's children's television strands. Between 1985 and 2002, CBBC was the name given to all the BBC's programmes on TV for children aged under 14...
TV programme ‘Level Up
Level Up
Level Up was a UK children's TV programme that was broadcast on CBBC. It was launched on the 3rd April 2006, replacing Xchange. The show was an hour long and during the school year broadcasting from 7:30am until 8:30am...
’
Pete also has two children from his first marriage to Jane (née Beacroft). His sons, David (born August 1980) and Simon (born May 1982) never saw Pete after he separated from their mother Jane in late 1982.
David is a successful accountant, and is a partner in the growing Derby firm Sibbalds. Simon has followed in the footsteps of his father and uncle, and works as a salesman in the textile industry - something he is very good at!
Funeral
Pete Bowler suffered a fatal heart attackMyocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
in September 2005, whilst carrying out a survey of water voles for Scarborough
Scarborough (borough)
Scarborough is a non-metropolitan district and borough of North Yorkshire, England. In addition to the town of Scarborough, it covers a large stretch of the coast of Yorkshire, including Whitby and Filey....
Council. His unconventional woodland burial
Eco-cemetery
Natural burial is a process by which the body of a deceased person is interred in the soil in a manner that does not inhibit decomposition and allows the body to recycle naturally...
in South Yorkshire, held without any formal ceremony, was attended by over a hundred friends and colleagues. Interred with him in his biodegradable wicker
Wicker
Wicker is hard woven fiber formed into a rigid material, usually used for baskets or furniture. Wicker is often made of material of plant origin, but plastic fibers are also used....
coffin was his collection of nutshells, whose varying marks made by different bites and nibbles helped him to plot the Yorkshire populations of wood mice, bank voles and other small mammals.