Gerald Francis Bowden (26 August 1935 – 7 January 2020) was a British Conservative MP, who represented Dulwich from 1983 until 1992. He was defeated by future Labour cabinet minister Tessa Jowell in the 1992 general election.

Career

He was an honours graduate in Jurisprudence from Magdalen College, Oxford; was called to the bar at Gray's Inn and qualified as a chartered surveyor at the College of Estate Management, practising part-time in these professions. Commissioned during National Service he continued to serve in the Territorial Army, retiring in the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. He held an academic appointment as a principal lecturer in the law of property at London South Bank University (formerly South Bank Polytechnic) from 1971 to 1984.

Gerald Bowden represented Dulwich on the Greater London Council from 1977 to 1981.

He was MP for Dulwich from 1983 until 1992. On leaving Parliament he took up an academic appointment at Kingston University and resumed practice at the planning bar.

He was a trustee of the Royal Albert Hall, and was previously Chairman of the Dulwich Estate (Alleyn's College of God's Gift) and the Walcot Foundation, a trustee of the Magdalen College Development Trust, and the Oxford and Cambridge Club.

Personal life

Bowden's daughter Emma died when the seaplane she was travelling in crashed into Cowan Creek, north of the Australian city of Sydney, on New Year's Eve, 2017. Emma and her daughter Heather Bowden-Page were both killed immediately alongside her fiancé Richard Cousins, 58, and his two sons William, 25, and Edward, 23.^[1]