Charles Bowden (c.1847 - 20 February 1922) was a school teacher and trade unionist.
After attending the Westminster Training College, he became a member of the National Union of Teachers (NUT), he served as president of the union in 1893. He was elected to the executive of the union in 1896 and 1897.
In 1897 he was elected as a Progressive Party member of the London School Board, representing Finsbury. At this time he was described as a publisher, and was living at De Montfort Villas, Forest Hill. By the time of the next school board election in 1900 he had broken with the Progressives: running as a Independent Progressive he failed to hold his seat.
Also in 1900 he sued the treasurer and executive of the NUT, claiming he had been libelled in the accounts and annual reports of the union. The judge persuaded him not to pursue the case and the two sides settled.
He died of heart failure in 1922, aged 75.