Fowler, Dr George Herbert
People > Fowler, Dr George Herbert
George Herbert Fowler was born on the 4th September 1861 in Lincoln, the only child of the Revd. John Fowler, headmaster of Lincoln Grammar School, and his wife Martha Bodley, daughter of Will Hulme Bodley, a Brighton medical practitioner.
He was educated at Marlborough College, then at Eton College (as a Kings Scholar) and in 1880 at Keble College, Oxford. He turned to zoology in his final year and gained a doctorate in the subject at Leipzig.
His working life as a scientist was mostly spent at University College, London, where he became assistant professor of zoology. He was co-founder and secretary of the Challenger Society for Marine Science in 1903. He was also editor of the Science of the Sea, which appeared in 1912.
When his father died, he inherited enough funds to allow him to retire from the university. He moved to Aspley Guise and lived in the Old House. Once there he began to study the history of the county. He stood for the county council and later became an alderman.
He was instrumental in setting up the Bedfordshire Historical Record Society in 1912, and the County Record Office in 1913. In 1913 the first volume of the Bedfordshire Historical Record Society appeared. The contents were predominantly Fowlers, but there were also items by other members. A similar volume appeared the following year, but when war broke out, Fowler was called to the Admiralty, to work in hydrographic and naval intelligence, preparing charts for use by submarines. He was able to do some historical work during the war and volumes were published in 1916 and 1917. Dr Fowler declined an offer of a knighthood for his wartime services, but was made a CBE in 1918.
After the war things became easier. Fowlers main interest was the Middle Ages, but he showed a great knowledge of many areas. He organised the County Record Office, trained staff, and also played a major role in setting up the County Library service and the introduction of the Workers' Educational Association. His local studies work included analysis and synthesis of the Domesday Book for Bedfordshire and a fourteenth century Sheriffs Roll.
He was a man of great energy and a winter sports enthusiast. He made regular visits to the Alps. In later years he still regularly spent 2 days a week working at the Record Office. He died at the Old House in Aspley Guise on 15th August 1940. He left the residue of his estate to fund studies in Old Icelandic at Oxford University
Sources:
- Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
- G Herbert Fowler : The forgotten oceanographer, by Margaret B. Deacon. Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London. Vol 38. No. 2. March 1984.
- Dr G Herbert Fowler, CBE, by Patricia L. Bell. Bedfordshire Magazine. Vol 14.
Dr George Herbert Fowler, by Bedfordshire Libraries, 2012
Page last updated: 29th August 2019