H(enry) W(atson) Fowler

Lexicographer, born in Tonbridge, Kent, SE England, UK. He studied at Oxford, became a schoolmaster at Sedbergh (1882–99), then went to London as a freelance journalist. In 1903 he joined his tomato-growing brother F(rank) G(eorge) Fowler (1871–1918) in Guernsey, and their literary partnership began. Their joint reputation rests on The King's English (1906) and the Concise Oxford Dictionary (1911). Henry later wrote the Dictionary of Modern English Usage (1926), a household work for all who attempt to write good English, even though it is sometimes as mannered as the mannerisms he set out to eradicate.

Henry Watson Fowler (10 March 1858 – 26 December 1933) was an English schoolmaster, lexicographer and commentator on usage of English. He is notable for both Fowler's Modern English Usage and his work on the Concise Oxford Dictionary.

Born in Tonbridge, Kent, Fowler graduated from Rugby and Balliol College, Oxford, and then spent seventeen years teaching Latin, Greek and English at Sedbergh School.

In 1903, he moved to the island of Guernsey, where he worked with his brother Francis George Fowler on The King's English (1906), a work with the purpose of encouraging writers to be more simple and direct in their style. The pair began work on Fowler's Modern English Usage before the end of the war. and Henry Fowler's book of English usage — which was dedicated to his brother — was published in 1926. The third edition (1996) is a much more extensive rewriting of the original by Robert Burchfield and marks a shift from Fowler's largely prescriptive approach to one more descriptive.

Following the death of its original editor, Fowler helped complete work on the first edition of the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, under the editorship of C.T.