Herbert William Bowden, Baron Aylestone (20 January 1905 – 30 April 1994) was a British Labour politician.
Early life
Born in Cardiff, Wales, 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." 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.
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. 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.
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. 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.
To many people's surprise,
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.