Background
Sir John Fowler was born in Wadsley, Bradfield, South Yorkshire, United Kingdom on July 15, 1817 to land surveyor John Fowler and his wife Elizabeth (née Swann).
Sir John Fowler was born in Wadsley, Bradfield, South Yorkshire, United Kingdom on July 15, 1817 to land surveyor John Fowler and his wife Elizabeth (née Swann).
Sir John Fowler began to study engineering at an early age.
In 1844 Fowler set up in business on his own and entered the field of railroad construction, laying out many of the small systems which were later amalgamated as the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway. He was engineer of the London Metropolitan Railway in the pioneer work on underground railroads, which were constructed by excavating the desired sites and then, once the railroad was completed, covering it up, rather than by tunneling. In 1866, Fowler was elected president of the Institution of Civil Engineers and in the next year served on a commission to consider the purchase, by the state, of the Irish railroads.
He opposed the idea of a tunnel under the English Channel and advocated instead the establishment of a ferry service. This, however, failed to meet with the approval of Parliament in 1872.
From 1871 to 1879 he was general engineering adviser to the Khedive Ismail in Egypt, where his plans, including the construction of a Sudan railroad, had to be abandoned on the grounds of financial difficulties. He was knighted in 1885. With his partner, Sir Benjamin Baker, he was engineer of the Firth of Forth bridge which was completed in 1890, when Fowler was made a baronet.