[1] Born to an English mother and a Welsh father, Bowen spent his earliest years on his family's farm, Pentrebach in Pontyberem, Carmarthenshire.
He was consequently unable to take up his place at Oxford and this experience gave him the idea of a national charity to assist young people with rheumatism in their educational ambitions.
[1] Bowen conceived the idea of a national charity to assist young people with arthritis and rheumatism in their education in 1942.
He spent most of the time he was in hospital lobbying MPs, medics, the press and various members of the aristocracy, which led to the formation of the British Rheumatism and Arthritis Association in 1947.
[2] He was also a trustee of the Pinder Children's Trust and the Open University Medical Society (dates unknown).