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Of

Hugh Fowler, M.A. [Obituary]

Transactions of the Devonshire Association, 1878, Vol X, p. 55.

by

W. Harpley

Prepared by Michael Steer

A succinct resumé for the Rev Mr Fowler appears in Alumni Cantabrigienses: A Biographical List of All Known Students, Graduates and Holders of Office at the University of Cambridge, from the Earliest Times to 1900. This compendium is a biographical register of former members of the University of Cambridge, edited by the mathematician John Venn (1834–1923) and his son John. The article, from a copy of a rare and much sought-after journal can be downloaded from the Internet Archive. Google has sponsored the digitisation of books from several libraries. These books, on which copyright has expired, are available for free educational and research use, both as individual books and as full collections to aid researchers.

Hugh Fowler, M.A., was born at Torrington on February 28th, 1816. He was the eldest son of Thomas Fowler, on whose life and inventions he read a paper before the meeting of the Association at Torrington in 1875. (Vide Transactions, vol. vii. p. 170.) He was educated at Blundell's School, Tiverton, and from there, having gained a scholarship, he proceeded to Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. He graduated in 1838 in double honours, and was subsequently made a fellow of his college. For some time he was second master of Blundell's School, and afterwards head master of Helston Grammar SchooL He was next appointed head master of Bideford School, and later (in 1854) head master of the King's School, Gloucester, which post he held until 1871, when he was presented by the Dean and Chapter of Gloucester Cathedral to the living of Barnwood, near Gloucester. This living he held until his death, and the results of his work for the few years he held it remain as standing proofs of the energy and activity which he threw into everything that he undertook.

Mr. Fowler was a keen lover of nature, and a great promoter of all that tended to the advancement of science and art. He was an ex-President of the Gloucester Literary and Scientific Association, and a member of the Cotswold Naturalists' Field Club. Geology was his favourite science, but the incessant work connected with his parish prevented him from studying it deeply. He died very suddenly of heart disease on August the 7th, 1877.