Tributes to walker, 85, found dead on holiday
Police search ends with tragic discovery
STUArT Pike
TRIBUTES have been paid to an 85-year-old former church organist who died after going missing while on a walking holiday.
Crawshawbooth native Neil Cowking was visiting River Breamish Caravan Park, near Powburn, when he was reported missing on Sunday, September 27.
An investigation was launched to locate the pensioner, who was believed to have last visited the Ingram Valley area, with police, mountain rescue teams and walkers leading a frantic search for him.
It was later confirmed the body of a man had been found approximately two miles west of Ingram in the Breamish Valley.
He was later identified as Mr Cowking.
His nephew Andrew Cowking, of Rawtenstall, described him as a gentleman.
TRIBUTES have been paid to an 85-yearold former church organist who died on a walking holiday.
Crawshawbooth native Neil Cowking was visiting River Breamish Caravan Park, near Powburn, when he was reported missing on Sunday, September 27.
An investigation was launched to locate the pensioner, who was believed to have last visited the Ingram Valley area, with police, mountain rescue teams and walkers leading a frantic search for him.
But police later confirmed the body of a man had been found approximately two miles west of Ingram in the Breamish Valley.
He was later identified as Mr Cowking, a former construction firm director and long-time Goodshaw Baptist Church organist, from Huddersfield.
His nephew Andrew
Cowking, of Rawtenstall, said it had been of some comfort when the postmortem revealed that he had died suddenly rather than becoming stranded.
Andrew said: “He didn’t suffer. We just hoped he hadn’t broken an ankle and died of hypothermia, but he died instantly on the moors.”
The missing appeal on the Northumbria Police Facebook page had attracted an immense response, with some 3,500 shares and hundreds of comments expressing support.
Andrew, who works as an accountant, said walking alone would not have worried his uncle.
“He was a hands-on guy,” he said. “If the TV aerial was broken he would climb on the roof. For an 85-year-old he was as fit and healthy as he could get. If it wasn’t for Covid he would have been in France on a three or four-week caravanning holiday. He couldn’t go to France so he’s gone to Northumberland and
●» taken his caravan up there. We think he has gone on a walk on the Saturday and when he hadn’t returned to the caravan on the Sunday the alarm was raised and the search party went out.”
Mr Cowking was born in Crawshawbooth in 1935 and lived in the Valley until the 1970s before moving to Huddersfield for work reasons. However, he retained strong ties to the area and still played the organ at Goodshaw Baptist with his brother Harry until 1983.
Mr Cowking was a former Baxenden and Burnley Golf Club member and also a big classic car enthusiast. Andrew said he and his brother Graham enjoyed travelling with their uncle around France in the 1980s in his restored 1947 MG TC.
“It’s only a two-seater so he we had to go on alternate years,” he recalled. “He was a good uncle, very generous and very caring and he could turn his hand to anything.”
Mr Cowking leaves his partner and friend Christine, along with Eileen, wife of his late brother Harry, and nephews Graham and Andrew. His funeral will be held on Thursday, October 15 at Goodshaw Baptist Church, followed by committal at Burnley Crematorium.
Donations are invited to the Northumberland National Park Mountain Rescue Team, which Andrew said his uncle would have wanted.
For funeral details contact Fred Hamer Funeral Service, Rawtenstall.