FORMER Wisbech Mayor Charles Bowden died on Monday aged 85 in Watford General Hospital, after a short illness.

Mr Bowden and his wife Lilian were both Labour councillors on Wisbech Borough Council in the 1970s and he served as the town’s mayor in 1978. He was also a school governor and a Justice of the Peace.

Known to everyone as Charlie, Mr Bowden ran several shops in Wisbech including a newsagents, a tea shop in Norfolk Street and a Wisbech market stall.

As an employee of Eastern Gas for most of his life, he was based in Chase Street in Wisbech. He also worked at the main gas office in Peterborough.

Five years before his retirement, Mr Bowden and his wife moved to Hemel Hempstead, where he worked as a housing development manager for Eastern Gas.

Mr Bowden’s wife died in 1995. He leaves twin sons, Jamie and Craig Bowden, and daughter Megan Rowson.