Community Contributed
Godfrey Bowen - NZ Hero
Kete Horowhenua2020-03-23T16:51:52+00:00Godfrey Bowen
FASTEST SHEARER IN THE WORLD
With a history steeped in agriculture it is natural that New Zealand’s farmers, shepherds and shearers have become known throughout the world for their skill and toughness. Many have travelled, to teach and work in foreign countries, but few have been invited to Buckingham Palace, appeared on late night American television or been honoured by the leader of the Soviet Union. Only one: Godfrey Bowen.
Walter Godfrey Bowen was born in Hastings, New Zealand, in 1922. He was named after his father, a sheep farmer of Craggy Range, Havelock North. Godfrey attended Havelock North Primary School from 1927 to 1932 and had aspirations to one day becoming a lawyer. However his family moved to Te Puke in the Bay of Plenty and his father decreed (due to the stresses of the Depression years) that he couldn't go to secondary school and had to milk cows instead. With his brothers Eion, Ivan and Ken, he began working as a shearer at the age of 16. All the Bowen boys became accomplished shearers. They all had an edge, especially Ivan and Godfrey. These two had a massive edge, one over the rest of the world’s shearers, a talent that appeared almost God-given.
From the outset Godfrey displayed an incredibly natural apitutude for shearing, and over the course of his career was to transform shearing techniques.
In 1938 during his first season, as a 16-year-old, his best day’s tally was 204 sheep. At that time the top shearers in the country could not manage more than 300. By the time he was 19, Bowen's personal best would be 322, an enormous tally for those days considering the equipment used and the standard of the sheep.