Eric Bowman, who held many senior BBC positions, has died.  He was 73.

Eric was originally from Sunderland and had studied Arabic as part of his degree from the LSE.  He joined the Arabic Service in 1969 as a Talks Writer.  Soon he was put in charge of the Beirut office, where he stayed until 1976, when the Lebanese Civil War forced the BBC to close it.

He later became Singapore Representative, head of Overseas Bureaux Administration, and Head of the Arabic Service.  He was made General Manager of BBC Monitoring and from there became Chief Assistant to successive Directors of News and Current Affairs.  

He retired from the BBC in 1997 and took up a position in the business development team for the Associated Press, marketing their ENPS newsroom production system.

He finally retired in 2009 and devoted much time to his study of religious art.

Eric was diagnosed with cancer in September 2016.

He leaves a wife, Sheila, a son, Jeffrey, and grandson, Scott.

Funeral details to follow.

The funeral will be on Thursday, July 20th, at 12.30 at Christ the Saviour Church, Ealing Broadway.