A DRIVER fell asleep at the wheel and crashed into a stone bridge at 70mph in 1963.
Every day since, has been a bonus according to Herefordshire Council chairman Sebastian Bowen.
Born in the Indian city of Indore, in 1942, Sebastian has seen his fair share of the world and has got more than a tale or two to tell.
He is a former Royal Marine, jockey, actor, and teacher and never thought he would become council chairman when he was elected to represent the Bircher ward on Hereford and Worcester County Council in 1994.
He says he grew up with a sense of duty and service and was extremely grateful to be chosen last year to represent the council in civic duties.
His family history is full of service to his country and councillor Bowen has continued that tradition.
“My father was a major in the Indian Cavalry and he transferred from the military to the political service which he found interesting,” he said.
“He was at the Tehran conference when Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt were attending, and he met them all.
“My father was then posted to the North West Frontier and he ended up in Indian Kashmir which is the most beautiful place you can imagine.
“I was there until I was about six and a half years old.”
His family then returned briefly to Britain from India on the ocean cruising steamer Atlantis.
Sebastian said they witnessed one of the stokers, who had been driven mad by the heat, jump overboard.
“We were up on the top deck and saw him jump over. It was extraordinary.
“The ship stopped, boats out, no sign of the body. It is the sort of thing that sticks to your mind.”
His father then became a district commissioner in the Bechuanaland Protectorate which is modern day Botswana.
“We all went out there and I was educated at a prep school in Joburg.
“We spent a lot of time on tour with my father and the amount of animals we saw, of every sort, you wouldn’t believe. It was an amazing experience.”
His family relocated to Nigeria for a while before finally coming back to England in 1954.
“We came from African mid-summer to English mid-winter on the Cotswolds.
“Horizontal sleet, rain, snow and icing falling on the inside of the windows in our dormitories. It was pretty bleak.
“It was the first time I had spent any time in England. I had previously only ever come back to go away again. England was not home at all then.
“Since then I’ve been in Devon, where I was a Royal Marine, and Hampshire where my parents lived, and Worcestershire and Herefordshire.
“I came here for two years and here I am 30 years later.”
Mr Bowen was awarded a scholarship into the Royal Marines at the age of 16.
“It was great. It meant my education was paid for the last two years.
“Then we were put into this tough regime of training, but it was the best you could get at the time.
“It was tremendous. A great esprit de corps and you felt you were doing something worthwhile. It gave you a great sense of service and duty which stayed with me ever since.
“We went all over. I had an interesting training time and did sea service onboard HMS Roebuck. We went around the Mediterranean, Cape Verde islands and West Indies and a fortnight in Barbados.”
He said one of the most fascinating times in the Marines was being sent to put down riots in what was then British Guiana.
“Coming to the aid of the civil power was the correct definition of it,” he recalls.
“I was appointed personal bodyguard of the leader of the opposition Forbes Burnham who was an extremely frightened man.
“He then later became president and then president for life.
“He was a descendent of the black population of the slaves that were brought over, and the Indians, led by Cheddi Jagan, were the predominant trading people.
“There was always tension between the two groups and we were sent to try and keep them apart and stop them from killing each other. Which I think we succeeded in.”
Shortly after, Sebastian returned to England and was involved in a car crash in 1963.
This dramatically changed the course of his life and brought his military career to a sudden halt.
“I got smashed up rather badly in a car crash. I was a front seat passenger.
“We were coming back from a three-day exercise in Exmoor where we had been marching nonstop, basically.
“It came to the point where we were hallucinating. I remember seeing women dressed in Victorian costumes pushing silver cross prams across non-existent Belisha beacon crossings.
“Very weird. It was just sheer exhaustion.
“It was very unfortunate. The driver fell asleep at the wheel and crashed into a stone bridge at 70mph. We were very lucky to be alive.
“Each day since has been a bonus really.”
He said the injuries cut his military career short and he retrained as a teacher and an actor.
“I was working as an assistant trainer to a trainer in the Midlands and trained as a teacher and as an actor and rode as a jockey.
“I rode about 50 winners which was not that bad. From a very non horsey background in many ways.
“I started by riding all the worst horses but when I started winning, they thought, good Lord! We better let him ride some of the better ones.”
He joked that he is probably the only chairman of Herefordshire Council to have ridden a winning horse around Hereford Racecourse.
Sebastian said he got involved in local politics quite by mistake.
“The sitting tenant in the Bircher ward didn’t seem to be particularly interested in the ward itself.
“She didn’t respond to people and didn’t appear to be a very helpful person.
“She hadn’t endeared herself to the local population, so I got on my bike and walked around and talked to people.
“I was treated with complete contempt. A pathetic little protest vote but come the night I more than doubled her vote. It was a huge shock for her and a very big shock for me!
“I was very lucky that councillor Terry James was extremely helpful, and Felicity Norman and her husband were also very supportive.
“And a former councillor in Worcestershire, Martin Baines, was also very good and he became my election agent in the end.
“I have found it extremely interesting as a councillor and I feel you can sometimes actually do some good.
“If you do your best and listen to people you can help.
“We are the servants of our people, not their masters.”
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