Kenneth Stowe

Sir Kenneth Ronald Stowe (17 July 1927 – 29 August 2015) was a senior British civil servant. He was Principal Private Secretary to the Prime Minister (1975–79), and the Permanent Under-Secretary of State of the Northern Ireland Office (1979–81). From 1981-87, he was Permanent Secretary of the Department of Health and Social Security. He was made a CB in 1977, CVO in 1979, and KCB in 1980 and a GCB in 1986.

Biography Stowe was born in Dagenham, Essex on 17 July 1927.

Stowe attended Dagenham County High School and studied history, under a scholarship, at Exeter College, Oxford.

On 20 August 1949, Stowe married Joan Frances Randall Cullen, a teacher, in Essex. The couple went on to have two sons and a daughter. He was left a widower in 1995.

Stowe graduated in 1951, he joined the civil service's National Assistance Board (later to become the Ministry of Social Security), working directly with those people who were asking for help. In 1973, he began employment as under-secretary at the Cabinet Office in the Legislation Committee. CVO in the 1979 Birthday Honours, and KCB in the 1980 Birthday Honours and a GCB in the 1986 New Year Honours.

He spent his later years with his partner, Judith Mary Phillips, and died at his home in Lingen, Herefordshire on 29 August 2015, aged 88.