John Bowcock — October 25, 1931-April 17, 2023

SHIPLAKE resident John Bowcock, a former consulting engineer who dedicated his career to bringing water and electricity to numerous poor parts of the globe, has died, aged 91.

“Dams across the Nile” — John accomplished that and much more.

John was born in St Leonards-on-Sea in East Sussex on October 25, 1931, and was educated at Hastings Grammar School and St Catherine’s College, Oxford.

He graduated with a first class honours in engineering science in 1953 and joined the Royal Air Force in the same year.

After three months at the officer cadet training unit on the Isle of Man, he trained aircraft apprentices at Halton in Buckinghamshire until 1956.

During this time he married Pauline Dalton and their eldest daughter, Anne, was born.

In 1957 John started working for the international firm of consulting civil engineers, Sir Alexander Gibb & Partners (Gibb).

He was involved in the construction of many major dams and hydroelectric power stations across the developing world.

These included the Kariba Hydro Electric Scheme, a project across the great Zambesi River in the then newly formed Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland (now Zambia, Malawi and Zimbabwe), where his two other daughters, Susan and Jane, were born. He also worked on the Roseires Dam project in the Sudan, the Latiyan Dam in Iran and multiple dams in southern Africa.

Working on these projects involved moving his growing family to multiple remote and sometimes inhospitable foreign locations.

In 1978 John returned to Gibb’s head office in Reading and was appointed a partner in the firm.

Until his retirement he was the partner/director responsible for various overseas projects in Argentina and Africa, including the Lesotho Highlands River Project, which was built primarily to supply water to South Africa but also to meet all of Lesotho’s electricity demands from a hydro-electric power station.

In 1989 Gibb became part of the the Law Companies Group, of Atlanta, Georgia. Gibb retained its own identity but incorporated and became a limited company.

John was appointed a director and chief executive of the company in 1989 and became chairman in 1993.

At that time, Construction News reported: “In giving the chairman’s job to civil engineer John Bowcock, Sir Alexander Gibb & Partners has installed a bridge between the old and the new worlds of consulting engineering.”

During the period 1978-95 John was involved with marketing the firm’s activities in America, Asia and Africa, which involved extensive travel in these regions.

Following retirement, from full-time work with Gibb in 1995, he practised as a private consultant involved with projects in Eritrea, Pakistan and Abu Dhabi.

He was elected chairman of the British Consultants Bureau in 1992 and chairman of the Association of Consulting Engineers in 1995.

John attributed his early aspirations for a career in civil engineering to an Odham’s Press publication, Triumphs of Engineering.

He was attracted by the “sustainable” aspect of hydroelectricity long before the word “sustainable” was used in its present everyday context. He was particularly interested in the Boulder Dam project on the Colorado River and by the dams, hydropower stations and irrigation schemes undertaken by the Tennessee Valley Authority.

The various projects in which he had roles as his career developed contributed significantly to the well-being of the entire population of all the countries involved.

After retirement, John was a governor of Shiplake College and volunteered at the Huntercombe Young Offenders Institution, giving “one to one” coaching in numeracy and literacy to young offenders.

John also joined Huntercombe Golf Club and, accompanied by a beautiful blonde (his golden retriever Sheba), golf became the focus of his retirement activities.

He also ran a bridge club comprised of gentlemen from the Henley area.

John is survived by his wife Pauline, their daughters, Anne, Susan, and Jane, grandchildren and great grandchildren.

There will be a requiem mass at Sacred Heart Church, Vicarage Road, Henley, at 1.30pm on Thursday, May 4. The service will be live-streamed and accessible through the church’s website.

Family flowers only but donations in his memory, if wished, to “Water Aid” (c/o Tomalin & Sons, 38 Reading Road, Henley-on-Thames, Oxon, RG9 1AG).