25.10.2022

Richard Victor Sowter 1956-2022

We received the sad news this week that Richard Sowter who worked for Grove and Grove Manlift in the 1980s has died. He passed away last Thursday, following a short battle with cancer, he was 66.
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Richard Sowter

Richard Sowter’s crane and access career began when he joined Grove International as a sales trainee based at its offices in Cowley, Oxford, in the UK at the start of 1981. He was soon appointed to his first overseas posting as a district manager for Manlift sales in Saudi Arabia. He later took over a similar role for the Nordic countries working from the Grove international offices in Oxford.

In 1988 he was recruited for a job with BP Solar and went on to set up BP Solar in 1995 and also worked with the company in Bangalore, India. After leaving BP at the end of 1999, he worked with a number of companies in the clean energy field and eventually set up his own consultancy business.

Richard was almost always conscientious thoughtful and a lot of fun and in his days at Grove, always making the most out of life, with a wide circle of friends.
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Richard Sowter - 1990s

Powered access industry veteran Paul Richards joined the Grove International sales training depart at around the same time as Sowter and spent a good deal of time with him. Learning of his passing he wrote:

“It was very sad to hear news of Richard Sowter who passed away on Thursday after only a recent diagnosis of an aggressive form of cancer. Richard and I were colleagues at Grove International, both joining the Europe Africa and Middle East cranes and Manlift marketing team in or around 1980 and became great friends working (and playing) together for many years thereafter.

Richard moved as district manager to Saudi Arabia in the early 1980’s and I to the USA, reuniting in the UK in 1984 to join the Grove Manlift (soon to be joined by Coles Starlift) international sales team formed by Mike Lamb and then Charlie Rich following Grove’s acquisition of Coles Cranes.
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Richard Sowter, the first on the left at a dinner following a Grove training session in Saudi during the early 1980s

Richard covered Scandinavia and northern Europe where he will be fondly remembered by the many friends, he made in the nascent aerial lift industry at that time. During our many escapades, one anecdote that sticks in my mind is from The ICE exhibition at the NEC in Birmingham in 1981 where - likely courtesy of this editor! - we had a ‘uniform’ of what can only be described as ‘shitty’ brown blazers and beige trousers.

Richard and I shared a room at the show, and I set out very early one morning with the coach and several crates of Carlsberg to Heathrow airport to collect some (of Richard’s) Scandinavian customers. A little hazy after a late night and the early start and a few beers en route, and having been sat down most of the morning, I hadn’t taken much notice of my slightly ill-fitting trousers.
Richard, who was a good two or three inches taller than me however, had been standing all day at the exhibition wearing my trousers ‘flying at half-mast’!

In the late ’80’s Richard had a change of industry and joined BP’s Solar Energy division, living and working in Asia, and thereafter Texas. He was most recently running his own solar power consultancy business from his base in Surrey.

My condolences to Caroline and family.