The first requirement “to raise the standard of the industry” and form an Association was in 1934. At that time the idea did not take off, but ten years later, under the pen name ‘Elbee’, an article was written about this, entitled “looking ahead”, which was read by a W.E. Teddy Lawton, and support was drummed up from 14 other similar companies to form the AEMT.

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Ted Lawton became the first Chairman of the AEMT in 1945, followed by ‘Elbee’, who had an unrivalled knowledge of everyone in the industry, and wrote many articles in “Electrical Machin­ery,” the forerunner to the AEMT Journal.

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‘Elbee’, is of course Lawrence Bowers.

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Members of the AEMT owe the Bowers family a great deal of gratitude for their lifetime services to the AEMT and the industry. The name has been at the forefront of the industrial electrical apparatus industry in the UK over four generations.  Laurie Bowers was managing director of RF Winder, and a pivotal founding member of the association.

 

However, connections with the industry go back even further: Laurie Bowers’ grandfather was a bookkeeper and accountant at RF Winder during the Victorian and Edwardian eras. Laurie Bowers was David Bower’s father, and David’s son, Michael also works for the family company.

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In 1962, David Bowers married Christine Otter, who has also been part of the family companies with David. She has been a tremendous support to David throughout their long marriage, and live very happily at their home charmingly known as “Otter’s Holt”.

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David joined RF Winder, his father’s company, and became joint managing director until 1993. He left the company to purchase Electrical Repairs (Nottingham) off Bob Rigley, who was ready to retire. The company was founded in 1947, and now celebrates its seventieth year in business. No mean achievement. Shortly after buying the company, David changed its name to Bowers Electricals Ltd and now David’s son Michael Bowers is the Managing Director and David the Chairman.

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Over that period the com­pany has grown and developed considerably in the design, manufacture, refurbishment, supply and installation of power engineering equipment. It has one of the largest stocks of new and reconditioned Power and Distribu­tion equipment in the UK.

 

Why has it been so successful?

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David has been going to AEMT meetings since its inception in 1945, when he was just 7 years old, attending many conferences with his parents. It is prob­ably no surprise that David joined the AEMT council in 1976, and rapidly became Northern Area Chairman in 1978, and then became President of the AEMT in 1982. After that he was a very active Treasurer for nine years between 1988 and 2001, and is still on the AEMT Audit committee.  

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In 2004, after a record breaking 25 years on the AEMT council, he was made an Honorary member of the AEMT in recognition of his services to the industry.

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He championed for British sign language to be recognised as an equal to English for engineering apprenticeships. Deaf and dyslexic, Max Buxton, has flourished as an apprentice under David Bowers’s wing.

 

There is no other person who is more deserving for the first AEMT Lifetime Achievement Award.