Person    | Male  Born 10/3/1858  Died 26/12/1933

Henry Watson Fowler

Categories: Literature

Lexicographer, grammarian and schoolteacher. Born at Tonbridge, Kent. He taught at Fettes College in Edinburgh and Sedbergh School in Yorkshire. Best remembered for 'A Dictionary of Modern English Usage' (first published 1926 and still considered by many to be definitive) and his work on the Concise Oxford Dictionary, Died at his home, Sunnyside, Hinton St George, Somerset.

More details of his life can be found on his Wikipedia page and our colleague, Andrew Behan, found that when aged 57 years on 6 April 1915 he claimed that he was just 44 years of age to enable him to enlist in The 23rd (Service) Battalion, Royal Fusliers (First Sportsman's) and his name is listed on the Battalion's nominal roll. He entered France on 22 November 1915 but he suffered greatly from rheumatism in the trenches and was medically discharged on 5 May 1916 when his true age of 58 years was discovered. He was awarded the 1914-1915 Star, the British War Medal 1914-1918 and the Victory Medal, together with a Silver War Badge. 

When probate was granted on 28 February 1934, his estate totalled £3,270-14s-9d.

Credit for this entry to: Alan Patient of www.plaquesoflondon.co.uk

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Henry Watson Fowler

Commemorated ati

Henry Watson Fowler

Henry Watson Fowler, 1858 - 1933, grammarian and lexicographer, lived here 19...

Read More

Hodge the Cat

Hodge is sitting on a leather-bound book ("A Dictionary of the English Langua...

Read More

Other Subjects

Percy Fitzgerald, FSA

Percy Fitzgerald, FSA

Sculptor, painter and author. Born Ireland.  The picture source website has a second picture of Fitzgerald, sadly no more flattering than this one.

Person, Literature, Sculpture, Ireland

2 memorials
Norman Douglas

Norman Douglas

Writer. Born George Norman Douglas in Thüringen, Austria, the son of a mountaineer and archaeologist. Joined the Foreign Office in 1894 and served in St Petersburg. He settled in Capri, where his c...

Person, Literature, Austria, Italy, Russia

1 memorial
Evelyn Waugh

Evelyn Waugh

Writer. Born 11 Hillfield Road, West Hampstead.  Wrote "Decline and Fall", "Brideshead Revisited".  And we have to tell you the strange but true fact that Waugh's first wife's name was also Evelyn....

Person, Literature, Seriously Famous

2 memorials
Thomas Carlyle (author)

Thomas Carlyle (author)

Historian, essayist and co-founder of the National Portrait Gallery. Born in Ecclefechan, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. Portrayed, second from right, in the 1860 Ford Madox Brown painting 'Work'...

Person, History, Literature, Scotland

6 memorials
Dick Whittington's cat

Dick Whittington's cat

See Dick Whittington. The picture is the charming logo adopted by the Whittington Hospital on Highgate Hill.

Animal, Literature, Theatre

1 memorial

Previously viewed

B. O. Buckingham

B. O. Buckingham

Worked at the Stock Exchange and died in WW2.

Person

War dead, WW2
1 memorial