Sir Ernest (Arthur) Gowers

British civil servant, and author of an influential work on English usage. He studied at Cambridge, and was called to the bar in 1906. After a distinguished career in the civil service, he wrote Plain Words (1948) and ABC of Plain Words (1951) in an attempt to maintain standards of clear English, especially in official prose.

Sir Ernest Arthur Gowers GCB GBE (1880–1966) was a British civil servant, now best known for work on style guides for writing the English language.

At the invitation of HM Treasury he wrote Plain Words, a guide to the use of English in 1948.

Its success was wide — far beyond the original audience of civil servants — and Gowers was invited by the Oxford University Press to prepare a new edition of Fowler's Modern English Usage, which was in need of updating, having been in print since 1926 with only very minor changes.

Gowers wrote also on capital punishment, having chaired a Royal Commission set up by the Attlee government to examine all aspects of the subject.

He was the grandfather of composer Patrick Gowers and greatgrandfather of mathematician and Fields Medallist Tim Gowers.