He was a member of the building and contractors company Messrs Bowman and Sons in Stamford.

[1] Bowman was elected to Stamford Town Council in 1911 and elevated to alderman in 1926.

He was a long-serving chairman of the Town Council's Finance Committee and was mayor of Stamford in 1926, 1927 and 1928.

[2][3] In the First World War, he was a distribution officer for the Ministry of Food and a director of transport for the North Midland Division; he was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire in recognition of this service.

In 1926 he was also appointed a justice of the peace for Kesteven and three years later was made a magistrate for Stamford.