121 



3u (Betnoriam. 



WILLIAM FOWLER. 



Born 27th February, 1835; Died 7th ]\Iarch, 1912. 



(plate II.). 



On the 7th of !\Iarch, at his native village, Winterton, Lin- 

 colnshire, the first President of the Yorkshire Naturalists' 

 Union passed to his rest. He was buried beside his devoted 

 wife at Liv^ersedge, on the 9th, amid signs of general mourning. 

 Indeed, there could be no more convincing evidence of the 

 affection in which he was held at Liversedge, than the immense 

 concourse assembled at his funeral ; at which two Ex-presidents, 

 Mr. Geo. T. Porritt, F.L.S., and Mr. W. Denison Roebuck, 

 F.L.S., represented the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union, the 

 latter also representing the Lincolnshire Naturalists' Union. 



Canon Fowler was one of the sons of the late Joseph Fowler, 

 architect, and grandson of the well-known antiquary, William 

 Fowler. In 1864 he married Miss Williamson, of Cleck- 

 heaton. He was a scholar of Christ's College, Cambridge, 

 taking his B.A., 1857, ^^^ his M.A. in i860. He was curate 

 of St. John's, Cleckheaton, 1859-64 ; Vicar of Liversedge, 1864- 

 1910 ; Honorary Canon of Wakefield from 1906. This, how- 

 ever, gives but a dim idea of the work of this most kindly and 

 sympathetic of men. The new church in his old parish is the 

 most substantial memorial of his life's work ; but perhaps the 

 most interesting is the beautiful chancel screen which his late 

 parishioners erected after he left, as a token of their esteem, 

 and as a trifling recognition of his devoted services, which two 

 personal frien,ds, Bishops of Wakefield, equally recognised. 

 It is not for us here to enter upon this side of his activity. 



Canon Fowler M'as a man of wide sympathies, interested in a 

 whole range of subjects, and with a keen grasp on all alike. He 

 was an evolutionist of the modern type. Botany, in its 

 widest sense, was the stud}- of his life ; so far as we know he 

 was the first oecological student of environment as regards soils, 

 amongst British botanists. We possess notes of his going back 

 to 1852, and his work in botany ended with critically naming in 

 January last, the first Lincolnshire specimen of Carex axillaris, 

 which showed by its barren fruit that it is nothing but the C. vul- 

 pina X remota hybrid. The Phaenogams are considered by most 

 men enough for their energies, but the larger fungi and fresh- 

 water algae were not forgotten by the Canon. His diligence and 

 example have not gone entirelv unrewarded in the hearts and 

 lives of his contemporaries and pupils. 



Though the Canon was distinctly a worker and raconteur 

 rather than a writer, he did a little literary work at times besides 

 his sermons. Apparently his first contribution towards the 



1912 April I. 



