Bob Bowman, Chairman of Carlisle & District Music and Drama Festival and Trustee of Samling was awarded the OBE in the Queen’s New Year Honours for services to music and philanthropy.
Bob, pictured here at Buckingham Palace with his wife Jen, who is also a Trustee of Samling, is a retired pharmacist, and has spent a lifetime supporting the arts. Carlisle & District Music and Drama Festival alone annually gives about 2,000 young musicians, dramatists and speakers a chance to perform.
With a fine tenor voice, Bob became a soloist performing classical music when he was in his twenties and thirties, singing at venues including Newcastle, Edinburgh and Manchester. Inspired by his father, who was a choirmaster, he was ‘steeped in singing and music from an early age,’ he said.
‘When I first got the letter about the award I thought it was a tax return and I showed little interest but then it dawned on me and I got more excited and surprised.’
He received the award this summer from the Queen, accompanied by Jen, his daughter Gillian and granddaughters Alice and Sarah.
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