Robert William Bowes (19 November 1922 – 1 December 1979) was a British actor and teacher whose only film role was as headmaster Mr Gryce in the 1969 adaptation of Barry Hines' book "A Kestrel for a Knave".
He appears constantly in a temper, and does not listen, inflicting corporal punishment even on a boy who has simply been sent to convey a message to him by another teacher, because he wasn't allowed by Gryce the opportunity to explain that he had been forced by the other boys to hide the cigarettes found on him, and on another he'd refused to believe was innocent of deliberately coughing in assembly.
One critic has described Bowes' portrayal of him as "comically vicious...a twentieth-century update of Wackford Squeers, the appalling Yorkshire headmaster of Dotheboys Hall in Nicholas Nickleby",[3] and in subsequent performances of the play actors playing Gryce have tended to remain close to presentation of the character by Bowes.
Bob Bowes' employment on the film "Kes" reflected Ken Loach's tendency to utilize ordinary people in roles to which they were suited, rather than relying solely upon professional actors.
It is not clear as to whether Bowes was an acquaintance of either Loach or of Barry Hines, the author of the book A Kestrel for a Knave who also jointly wrote the film's script and was a former teacher.