Bob was born in the Wirral, and learned to ring whilst at University in Oxford around 1956. After graduation, he found work with Lever Bros. in Port Sunlight, and returned to the Wirral, where he was a member of the band at Eastham until 1968, apart from a spell working for Boots in Nottingham between 1961 and 1964.
In 1968, he took up a new job with Boots, and settled in Melbourne, Derbyshire, where he was instrumental in forming a new local band. As well as teaching new ringers at Melbourne – Ian Roulstone was a notable pupil – Bob rang a lot of quarters with the locals there, and also regularly rang Thursday evening peals with Gordon Halls.
In 1982, a new job with EDS took him to Milton Keynes, where he joined the Loughton and Shenley ringers. Following his retirement, he rang quarters frequently with the Chiltern mid-week group.
He rang 131 peals in all, mostly during his time at Melbourne, but including one for the Whiting Society in 2000. Bob was an active member of the Whiting Society for over thirty years.
It is a shame that his final years were blighted by Parkinson’s, which caused him to give up skiing and painting, as well as ringing.
Bob was a quiet, unassuming man: a true gentleman and a model of courtesy who never shouted or made a fuss, but was always a competent ringer and teacher.
rthur Armstrong was Tower Captain at Stoke when Owen succeeded him some forty years ago, and for many years he ran a successful Friday evening practice, alternating with Olney. Grandsire was a favourite…. The annual Stoke Goldington ringers’ outing was apparently legendary, with competition for spare seats on the coach! There are forty six recorded Branch Quarter Peals that include Owen, mostly rung in his home tower, but sometimes venturing over the parish borders to Tyringham, Weston Underwood, Hanslope, Olney and Emberton. He only rang one peal, 5040 Plain Bob Minor in 1963 at Stoke, which was for the Patronal Festival and the first on the bells since being augmented to six in 1952.
Model making was another of Owen’s keen interests. He worked at Vauxhall in Luton and was involved in making models of the cars that were being developed prior to production. He used this skill to make models connected with ringing. There are many of his rope spiders in towers in the area, bell table lamps, model bells, and a scale model of Stoke Goldington bells before augmentation.