Page 23 - PBCOctober2013

Pickwick Bicycle Club Magazine. Volume 10 No.3 October 2013

Mr. Bowden, who is very well known in the cycle trade, can claim to be an authority upon the
hygiene of cycling – as witness his life story told in brief. At 22 years of age the offer of a big salary
induced him to compete, successfully, against over a hundred others for an appointment at
Hong-Kong. There he stuck to work long enough to amass a fortune; but the debilitating climate
nearly killed him, and he returned to England a physical wreck.

After trying every other remedy, he experimented with the pleasant prescription of cycle-riding,
and was speedily so fully restored to health that, yearning to be at work again, he formed the
important Raleigh Cycle Company now owned by himself and his son jointly. Normally employing
more than 1,700 people, the company produces annually 60,000 bicycles, and 100,000 speed
gears and other parts. “Cycling has banished my pains and lightened my mind, and made me,
physically and mentally, double the individual I was,” is Mr. Bowden’s enthusiastic testimonial to
the pastime and exercise.

Past President Reg Harris (aka Gabriel Grubb)

The World Champion
and his Raleigh bike.
(Drawing from the Editor’s
personal collection)