Biography of Walter Godfrey Bowen, MBE

Bowen once said, ‘I had to be an extrovert to get the message received . . . If a man is not an extrovert, you are not a promoter, and if you are not a promoter, you don’t achieve anything.’ (1)

Certainly, no one could accuse this man of not achieving! He was born in Te Puke, and began shearing when he was sixteen.

In 1953, he set a new world record by fleecing 456 sheep in nine hours. He had analysed shearing methods thoroughly, and developed his own special ‘Bowen technique’. The crux of it was using orderly strokes, and keeping the sheep relaxed. The New Zealand Wool Board were so impressed that they invited Bowen to set up a nationwide shearing training scheme. So he gathered around thirty instructors, wrote a textbook about the Bowen technique, Wool Away – the Technique and Art of Shearing, and started running courses at Massey and Lincoln Universities.

Bowen continued to gain hands-on experience. In 1960, while he was in Wales, he sheared 559 Welsh mountain sheep. And the following year, he won second prize at the inaugural Golden Shears competition. Who came first? Bowen’s brother Ivan!

However, what really set Bowen apart from other top shearers was his performing talent. As a lay preacher in Protestant Churches, he could hold his audience spell bound and was much sought after to speak at Rotary, Lions and College prize – givings. He travelled overseas regularly, demonstrating the New Zealand shearing style, and advising on training schemes. Europe, the United States, Chile, Argentina, Afghanistan and South Africa all benefited from his expertise.

During his long career, he sheared a sheep before the queen, and appeared on Johnny Carson’s ‘Tonight Show’ in the United States, and showed the Bowen technique to over 100 million television viewers.

In 1963, he spent several weeks training shearers in the Soviet Union. He was a natural teacher. He talked of his Soviet visit to an Auckland journalist: ‘In Russia I taught hundreds of them, and they didn’t understand a word I said, but they knew. I’d simply say ‘Put your LEG round here. QUIETLY take the leg. Take the HANDPIECE. Just let your wrist ROLL. FEEL the sheep. keep your rhythm. They knew all right.’ The Russians honoured Bowen with their highest award – Hero of Labour.

In 1970, Bowen took a flock of trained sheep to the New Zealand Expo display in Osaka, Japan. Its success gave him an idea. When he returned home, he set up a sheep-based tourist complex called the Agrodome, near Rotorua. Since then, hundreds of thousands of tourists have been entertained and educated by its displays.

In 1977, at 55 years old, Bowen represented New Zealand at the first World Shearing Championship in England. It was won by fellow New Zealander Roger Cox, but Bowen finished fourth.

Today, his textbook Wool Away is still used in wool-growing countries around the world. He wrote several other books about shearing, too, including The Ringer’s Stand, a novel about the career of a gun shearer, which was published in 1984.

A farmer once said, ‘Before Godfrey came along, the shearer was a nobody.’ In 1990, Bowen was given a place in the New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame. He collapsed at a church service and died at Rotorua on 2 January 1994, aged 72.

Reference

(1) (1994). The Legacy of Godfrey Bowen: he taught the world to shear. Shearing 10:1. pp 4 – 5.

Text originally published in Tai Awatea, Te Papa's onfloor multimedia database (1998).