A HAIRDRESSER in a family business for many years has died at the age of 80 after a long illness.

Anthony James Bowne – or Tony as he was known – was the second generation of the firm A V Bowne and Son based in Market Square, Bicester.

Tony married Christine Browne, nee Curtis, at St Mary’s Church, Banbury, in 1962. They met as she worked for southern Electricity Board, which at the time was two doors down from the shop.

The couple, of Churchill Road, Bicester, then worked together at the hairdressers where Mrs Bowne took bookings.

The business was founded by Tony’s father, Alfred Victor Bowne when he moved to the town from Wolverton, Milton Keynes, in 1921 after surviving a mustard gas attack while serving with the Royal Artillery in the First World War, 1914-18.

He first set up shop in premises in Sheep Street but in 1923 he bought the long established hairdressers run by the Hone family in Market Square. He closed the Sheep Street branch in 1930.

Tony followed into the business where he joined hairdresser Bert Naylor, who worked with the firm from the 1920s until the ’60s.

In the 1950s Tony’s father bought a property next door and opened a women’s salon. Alfred Bowne died in 1966.

The men’s salon was at the back of the ground floor while the front section was divided between a perfumery and a tobacconists.

Tony’s sister Dorothy was a hairdresser for many years working in the men’s salon.

She married police inspector Arthur Knight and when they lived in Banbury she still travelled by train to Bicester to work part-time for Tony. Dot and Arthur both died within a few months of each other in 1992.

Tony’s daughter Sarah also worked as a hairdresser for several years.

At various times Tony was a member of Bicester and District Chamber of Commerce, Bicester Round Table and Bicester Rotary Club.

When Tony retired in 1997 the business closed and is now a Pizza Express.

Mr Bowne leaves wife Christine, daughter Sarah, 46, now a housewife, son Andrew, 51, who works in the defence industry and five grandchildren – three grandsons and two granddaughters, aged between three and 21.

His funeral was at Oxford Crematorium on Monday.