F. G. (Francis George) Fowler

Born in Tunbridge Wells in 1871, Francis George Fowler was educated at St Paul's School and Peterhouse, Cambridge. He became known as a writer on English language, grammar, and usage, with a style grounded in clarity and practical good sense.

He is most closely associated with his older brother, Henry Watson Fowler. Together they produced several influential works, including a translation of The Works of Lucian, The King's English (1906), and The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English (1911). Those books helped set a tone for modern usage guides: lively, opinionated, and deeply attentive to how English is actually written.

Fowler lived for a time on Guernsey in the Channel Islands. He died in 1918, and because his life was comparatively short, his brother's later fame sometimes overshadowed his part in their shared work. Even so, Francis George Fowler remains an important figure in the story of English reference writing.