Harry Bowden Smith
RJG
Born Harold Smith at Blackpool, 25 May 1918, later known as northern
bandleader Hal Bowden.
Served in Merchant Navy 1939 until invalided out 1942.
Pioneered package holidays for 'ordinary people' and founded
Arrowsmith Holidays in 1945. His company began by offering older
people, chiefly in northwestern England, the opportunity to visit by
coach the former battlefields they served in during World War 1.
Arrowsmith Holidays pioneered cheap foriegn travel to the working
classes of the north by offering all-in holidays to the areas we now
consider 'tourist traps' - Costa De Sol springing to mind. Ruefully,
Harry would often refer to his greatest triumph being "introducing
fish and chips to the Spanish Coast".
The success of the company made him a multi-millionaire, but the death
of his wife Edna in 1966, coupled with the Southport Air Crash that
killed an entire holiday party (though no fault of Arrowsmith) caused
him to lose heart.
The company was sold to Sir Freddie Laker, and as part of Laker's
organisation went from strength to strength in the 1970s, with Harry
taking a more background role as a director of the parent company.
The crash of Laker's companies in the early 1980s, thanks to unfair
tactics on behalf of the established flag carriers and government
indifference, cuased Arrowsmith to be sold as virtually the only going
concern of the organisation.
But the company was closed by its new owners after only a short time,
and Harry went into semi-retirement.
He married Edna Edwards in 1945 (she died 1966) and had one son.
His later marriage to his second wife was less happy but produced two
sons and one daughter.
He leaves his long-time companion Jennifer, his son Christopher, and
his second family of Anthony, Phillip and Elizabeth.
He also leaves the Transdiffusion Broadcasting System
http://www.transdiffusion.org/ run by his son but financed by Harry
when founded in the 1960s. This organisation, which Harry followed
and encouraged in his later years, is now the premier broadcasting
history organisation in the United Kingdom with over 100 active
curators tending an archive of over a million broadcasting-related
items.
Robin Carmody
news:6a107116.03080...@posting.google.com...
> HARRY BOWDEN SMITH (25 May 1918 - 1 August 2003)
> Born Harold Smith at Blackpool, 25 May 1918, later known as northern
> bandleader Hal Bowden.
> He leaves his long-time companion Jennifer, his son Christopher, and
> his second family of Anthony, Phillip and Elizabeth.
>
> He also leaves the Transdiffusion Broadcasting System
> http://www.transdiffusion.org/ run by his son but financed by Harry
> when founded in the 1960s. This organisation, which Harry followed
> and encouraged in his later years, is now the premier broadcasting
> history organisation in the United Kingdom with over 100 active
> curators tending an archive of over a million broadcasting-related
> items.
My condolences.
-----
Robin Carmody
(a good friend of "his son Christopher" and contributor to the
Transdiffusion website)
Dave Johnson
>> Born Harold Smith at Blackpool, 25 May 1918, later known as northern
>> bandleader Hal Bowden.
>
>
My condolences, too. Thank you for the fascinating history of Harry.
From what I can recall, he was a really nice fella.
-- Dave Johnson
(cousin of Anthony, Phillip and Elizabeth and one-time nephew of
Harry)