Jim was born on 22nd June 1961 at his much loved family home "Sunny Bank" in Haddington East Lothian. Jim was the youngest of 3 and only boy and remembers having the tiny box room at the very top of the house until he could spread his wings (and his collection of things that might be useful one day) when his sisters Lindsey and Gillian got married and moved out. It was at this point that Jim created the BBC "Bowmans Broadcasting Company" his very own radio station serving the house, and later expanding to his aunt and uncles home too.
The Bowmans were an artistic family, being heavily involved with the local amateur dramatic society, but Jim was always more interested in playing with electricity and the lighting rather than treading the boards. Two of the highlights of Jims early theatre days were, being the youngest cast member of the world premier of Andrew Lloyd Webbers "Bible 1" later to become Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and fixing the light on Yehudi Menuhins violin stand. . Jim was very proud to have attended the Edinburgh Academy where his dad, Jim senior, was the head of Art and was a keen member of the printing club, and a not so keen member of the army cadets, he recalls not being fond of the itchy uniform; apart from enjoying golf (which he selected as the least energetic of the options available to him), Jim wasn't a sporty student and remembers dreaming up all sorts of schemes to escape physical activity, one year he even built and operated a PA system to escape sports day, that gave him the opportunity to play with the army radio kit.

Jim trained at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music & Drama in Glasgow, where he got to try his hand at TV production, camera work, sound, set design and his main love of lighting amongst other things. Faced with a career choice upon leaving, either an apprenticeship as a cameraman with the BBC or electrician at the Harrogate theatre, Jim chose Harrogate as he liked the character of both the theatre and the town and friendliness of the theatre team; (plus they offered him a job first), In order to further his career, Jim came down south to work at the Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich as Deputy Chief Electrician under Geoff Spain.

It was not long before (in 1984), he took up the post of Chief Electrician/Lighting Designer at the Mercury Theatre, Colchester - where he remained until 1997. Within his 13 years at the Mercury Jim lit every main house production - some of which are still talked about today!
This was by no means the end of Jims involvement with theatre, he continued lighting theatre productions on a part time basis, and lit every production (bar 3) for the Colchester Operatic Society & CO2 at the Mercury Theatre from 1984 until January 2015 when ill health forced him to take the sad decision to hang up his goboes his last show was ‘42nd Street’; Jim looked back fondly on these shows, gaining the most satisfaction from the most technically challenging productions that gave him an opportunity to show off his creativity abd shine, Sweeny Todd being one he viewed as his best.

In 1997 Jim, looking for pastures new decided to re-train to become a
Driving Instructor - which he did for a number of years, Jim was very proud of his driving skills and ability to read the road, on more than one occasion he’s reminisced glowingly about being asked to drive a float in the Queen Mothers 100th Birthday Parade in London, he was responsible for keeping Sir Patrick Moore on his perch and says it was a brilliant yet nerve wracking day, as it was very hot and he had to drive so slowly he was sure he'd burn out the clutch; but he saw driving instruction as no more than a means to pay the mortgage and to break the monotony, he looked into nurturing his other childhood passion, broadcasting.

Jim was bitten by the ‘Radio Bug’ big time and subsequently started to work for Hospital Radio Colchester, where he found a natural outlet to share his love of comedy, and "slightly silly radio" was born. Not wanting to hide his light under a bushel Jim decided to send his CV round to all of the BBC stations he could find, and, in his words, was amazed to get a positive response from Margaret Hyde at BBC Essex who loved his style and offered him some shifts as news BA, and encouraged his creativity by allowing him to make the odd trail for on-air use. This really gave Jim the appetite for radio, and Thanks to contacts that he made at Hospital radio, it wasn’t long before he started to also get shifts at BBC Radio Suffolk as Saturday sports BA, again, Jim loved the technical side and within a few weeks found himself “driving the desk” for the on-air sports programme, doing “turn around” of the football reports, editing with razor blades and of course, making impromptu trails for the sports show. His talents were recognised by the management, and Jim was amazed again to be told he was covering for the regular trails maker while he was on holiday; this was the start of Jims full time career with BBC Radio Suffolk and after only a year as a temp. Jim had a successful board (which he didn’t attend) and became permanent staff in 2000, Jim was a natural talent and with his Kenny Everettesque style, he brought a breath of fresh air into what until that point was seen by many as a stuffy institution, in 2002 Jim was short listed for a Sony radio academy award and won a Frank Gillard bronze award for his work, in fact, Jim got a taste for awards ceremonies and rubbing shoulders with the famous, one of the pinnacles was when BBC Radio Suffolk won the Sony Gold award as station of the year in 2004. It was also in 2004 that Jims persistence paid off, and as well as being asked to stand in as overnight regional presenter for Sue Marchant, while football was having it’s summer break, Jim was given 4 hours on a Saturday afternoon to treat the Suffolk listeners to a slice of “Slightly Silly Radio”, he even produced his own certificates to award listeners who called in for his wacky competitions, and brought prizes to give away. Jim loved the feedom he had to be creative and would produce well in excess of 200 unique trails per year, he was often told he was far too prolific, but there was just no stopping his imagination. Jims work was truly an inspiration to others in his field, rarely an edition of the industry magazine “sound ideas” went by without Jim getting a mention.

It was at BBC Radio Suffolk that in 2004 Jim met his future wife Sharon, who worked at the station as a BA and producer, the two were fixed up by their mutual friend Alix (who had also been instrumental in tidying up Jims appearance and making him cut his hair into something that looked more man about town than aging hippy). Jim had been single for around 8 years at this point and was somewhat reluctant to expose himself to getting hurt in a relationship which he felt was bound to fail as there were “no instant bells and whistles”, so it was another 18 months before Jim dared dip a toe in the dating water again, with the romantic text, “OK I give in”. Jim and Guide dog number 4, Dixie came into Sharons life at the same time in 2006; Jim had owned dogs previously with his first wife Jane, he often spoke proudly of Sam the wonder dog, a mongrel who had been found by a visiting actor tied up on Westminster bridge, Jim fell for Sam instantly and was very proud of how he’d managed to train him to wonderous levels of obedience, needless to say he fell instantly for the charms of Dixie too and he and Dix soon became besotted by each other, lunchtime walks in Christchurch park became a routine as Jim loved to watch Dixie play, in fact, Dixie would spend more time at work lying in Jims office than she’d spend with Sharon.
It was on a snowy Christmas day in 2009 while taking Dixie for a walk at Alton Water that Jim proposed to Sharon, and from the point he heard YES, there was no stopping his planning and the couple married in a humanist ceremony at Alva Glen, close to his sister Lindseys home in June 2010 next to a beautiful waterfall. Living and working together was great with the ability to create his own agenda, Jim was able to tailor his shifts to fit in with Sharons and the couple would spend lunchtimes together in the park, browsing charity shops or just chilling out together and making plans for the future. One of the major, life changing choices was to take voluntary redundancy from their jobs at the BBC in 2013, industry wide cuts due to the license fee settlement meant that Jims station sound job was one of those roles being cut, leaving Jim facing the decision of spending a large part of his working day travelling across East Anglia to work on several stations, or having to re-apply for his job and working just a couple of days a week; being a financial planning King, Jim did his sums and soon realised that both he and Sharon would be better off to take the redundancy payment and follow their dream of buying a house to refurbish and rent out. Everything started to fall into place when an ideal property came up at auction, Jim had spotted it in the catalogue and went along on the first open viewing to weigh up the potential and returned to work full of excitement, it was a total wreck and the smell was putting people off, but he was keen for sharon to see it, so the next day both went along again, and the potential shone through; Jim even took along a ladder and torch and asked to look in the loft, the auctioneer was astonished, but obliged, Jim was always prepared for anything J Having done and re-done his sums, Jim decided to go for it and auction day loomed, it was a nerve wracking experience but Jim played it cool and secured the purchase with only a couple of nods, he said afterwards that he’d felt quite ill and shaky, but found it exhilarating.
April 6th 2013 saw Jim and Sharon take possession of the keys and embark on their new project. The house refurb appealed to Jims sense of planning and his and Sharons joint love for hunting out a bargain, with no time constraints the couple scoured auction sites, became regulars at the Colchester yard sale, Jim spent hours drawing up spreadsheets of what needed to happen when and loved moving bits of post it note around squared paper to simulate the new layout for kitchen cupboards and the bathroom. The two were also very hands on, Jim took on brickwork and carpentry, plumbing, tile cutting, plastering, kitchen fitting and he even built a stud wall, though I secretly think he enjoyed knocking down the old plaster and lath one as much as creating the new one, needless to say he also took a great interest in the lighting design for the house and got great satisfaction from replacing all the low energy bulbs with “proper lighting” Jim hated the colour temperature of LED and always wanted lighting to be suitable for the purpose, but look inviting and cosy. Told by estate agents that the house had been finished to a much higher standard than needed, sums up Jims perfectionist approach, both he and sharon took pride in a job well done and Jim always had the attitude of if a jobs worth doing it’s worth doing well.

Jim was a keen naturist, fortunately it was a lifestyle that both he and Sharon enjoyed, in fact, in their first year together Sharon booked a surprise break in Cap d’Agde (the naked city) for Jims birthday, it was on this trip that Jim, (a lifelong non swimmer) decided to teach himself to swim, disappeared into the sea, leaving Sharon sitting alone & worrying on the beach; it was around an hour later that Jim reappeared from the opposite end of the sand, beaming and enthusing about how fantastic the sea was and how he’d lost track of time and where Sharon had been on the beach so had amused himself with a stroll the entire length of the naturist beach and another swim; Sharon was not quite as thrilled and relaxed as Jim seemed to be with his adventure. This trip however, did very much create an unbreakable bond between sharon and Jim, instilling a sense of camaraderie and a desire to try new things; over the ensuing years the couple visited France on many occasions, and also tried naturist resorts in Spain, Greece, Mallorca, the USA and many clubs in the UK.
At home, Jim created naturist friendly gardens which he loved to potter in, though Sharon would usually do the green fingered things while Jim instructed and supervised from his lounger. Jim was also passionate about making something from nothing, following on from his early days at Harrogate theatre where he’d first built his own fruit machine and made an automaton for his favourite restaurant, when Jim moved in with Sharon, he was accompanied by a DIY Frankenstein of a pinball machine and a car full of hand crafted fairground models, Jim was fascinated by the workings of circus’s and fairground rides, he would spend hours studying how they were built up and taken down, then he would build his own scale models, complete with the lorries they had to fit in to, everything had to work perfectly as well as look good. Jim had an inventive brain and loved to design and build things that would improve the house or make life easier, as well as colour changing lights on the front garden fence, Jim also designed tiny lights which worked on a sensor to illuminate the steps at night, he created his own ceramic postbox (necessary as he’d secured the front garden with an electronic lock on the gate), the problem of watering the plants or feeding the fish while away on holiday was another project which he relished getting his teeth into, he even created an auto fill system on the water butts to keep the fish pond topped up safely during hot weather. He made the most of wasted space in the boiler cupboard by designing a fold away clothes airer and filled the void above the kitchen cupboards with a wine rack that a sommelier would be envious of, Jim even created a bespoke cubbyhole to store baking trays beside the cooker rather than leaving a gap! Jim also loved to entertain and grabbed any opportunity to throw a dinner party or BBQ for his friends; both he and sharon were keen to experiment and try out new dishes, but Jims desire for perfection meant that he’d drive Sharon almost to distraction by insisting the practice the delicacies to be offered to their guests, that wouldn’t have been too bad if he’d remember to try things in advance, but he'd always remember 3 days before the event and so the two of them would be completely sick of the menu by the time anyone else got to sample it. Jim was however always generous, both with his time and in sparing no expense to spoil people, he always wanted to ensure that family and friends had a good time and something to remember.