Charles Bowen Cooke

{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2017}}

{{Use British English|date=May 2017}}

{{Infobox engineer

|image = Charles Bowen Cooke.jpg

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|caption = by James Peter Quinn (1869–1951)

|name = Charles John Bowen Cooke

|nationality = English

|citizenship = British

|birth_date = 11 January 1859

|birth_place = Orton Longueville, Huntingdonshire, England

|death_date = {{Death date and age|1920|10|18|1859|01|11|df=yes}}

|death_place = Falmouth, Cornwall, England

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|discipline = Locomotive engineer

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|employer = London and North Western Railway

|significant_projects =

|significant_design = LNWR Claughton Class

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Charles John Bowen Cooke {{post-nominals|country=GBR|CBE}} (11 January 1859 – 18 October 1920) was born in Orton Longueville (then in Huntingdonshire) and was Chief Mechanical Engineer (CME) of the London and North Western Railway (LNWR).{{cite magazine |editor-first=B.W.C. |editor-last=Cooke |date=December 1963 |title=Notes and News: Bowen Cooke's grave |magazine=Railway Magazine |volume=110 |issue=752 |pages=125–6 |publisher=Tothill Press |location=Westminster }} He was the first to add superheating to the locomotives of the railway.{{cite web |url=http://lnwrgeorgevtrust.org.uk/Class.html |title=LNWR GeorgeV Locomotive Trust | accessdate=7 April 2013}} He wrote a book called British locomotives: their history, construction; and modern development which was published in 1893, with a second edition in 1894, and third in 1899{{cite web |url=https://steamindex.com/books.htm#bowen |title=British locomotives: their history, construction; and modern development. | accessdate=7 April 2013}}{{cite web |url=https://steamindex.com/people/bowcook.htm |title=Bowen Cooke, Whale & Beames | accessdate=1 February 2015}} A second book, Developments in Locomotive Practice followed in 1902.{{cite web |url=http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/SearchUI/details?Uri=C1866629 |title=Development in locomotive practice Author: C J Bowen Cooke | accessdate=7 April 2013}}

Whilst CME of the LNWR he was responsible for the introduction of several new locomotive designs, including the George the Fifth and Claughton classes.

He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1918 New Year Honours for his efforts during the First World War.{{London Gazette |issue=30460 |date=7 January 1918 |page=368 |supp=y}}

He died on 18 October 1920 and is buried in the churchyard at St Just in Roseland, Cornwall.