Sir Robert Nicholas Fowler, 1st Baronet DL JP (12 September 1828, Tottenham, Middlesex – 22 May 1891 Harley Street, London) was a member of parliament and Lord Mayor of London.
He was born the son of Thomas Fowler of Gastard, Wiltshire.[1][2] He attended Grove House School, Tottenham and London University where he was awarded a B.A. degree in 1848.
He was a banker and M.P. for the Penryn and Falmouth Constituency, (1868–1874) and Conservative M.P. for the City of London Constituency (1880–1891). He was also elected Sheriff of the City of London for 1880 and Lord Mayor of London in 1883 and 1885, the last Lord Mayor to serve multiple terms until Sir William Russell in 2019.[3] He was created a baronet in 1885.
He was the author of A visit to Japan, China and India.[4]
According to Frank Harris, an admittedly unreliable source, Fowler excited the disgust of his fellow guests at a dinner given by William Thackeray Marriott by breaking wind copiously, and being apparently unconscious of giving offence.[5]
George Shaw-Lefevre MP noted that, due to plural voting (whereby property owners could vote both in the constituency where their property lay and that in which they lived), Fowler had no fewer than thirteen votes in different constituencies. At one General Election Fowler managed, energetically, to use all thirteen votes in one day.[6]
In 1890, Fowler was described as "of Gastard, Wilts., a JP and DL for Middlesex and Wilts, an Alderman of London".[7]
- ^ Sir Bernard Burke, The General Armory of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales (1864), Supplement
- ^ H. L. Malchow (May 2006). "Fowler, Sir Robert Nicholas, first baronet (1828–1891)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/10014. Retrieved 28 December 2008. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ "History of the Mayoralty". City of London.
- ^ A visit to Japan, China and India / by Robert Nicholas Fowler; London, Sampson, Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington, 1877.
- ^ Frank Harris, My Life and Loves, Ch. XIII
- ^ George Shaw-Lefevre (18 May 1892). "Plural Voting (Abolition) Bill (No 42)". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). Parliament of the United Kingdom: House of Commons. col. 1184.
- ^ Edmund Lodge, The peerage and baronetage of the British empire as at present existing (1890 edition), p. 785