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{{Infobox military person
|honorific_prefix=[[Major general|Major-General]]
|name = Charles Astley Fowler
|honorific_suffix=[[Order of the Bath|CB]] [[Order of the Star of India|CSI]] [[Distinguished Service Order|DSO]]
|image =
|caption =
|birth_date = 9 November 1865
|death_date = 7 January 1940 (aged 74)
|placeofburial_label =
|placeofburial =
|birth_place =near [[Lahore]], [[Punjab Province (British India)|Punjab]], [[British India]]
|death_place =[[Wokingham]], Berkshire, England
|placeofburial_coordinates = 
|nickname =
|birth_name =
|allegiance ={{flag|United Kingdom|23px}}
|branch ={{army|United Kingdom}}
|serviceyears =
|rank =[[Major general|Major-General]]
|servicenumber =
|unit =
|commands =
|battles =
|battles_label =
|awards =[[Order of the Bath|CB]] [[Order of the Star of India|CSI]] [[Distinguished Service Order|DSO]]
|relations =
|laterwork =
}}
Major-General '''Charles Astley Fowler''', [[Order of the Bath|CB]], [[Order of the Star of India|CSI]], [[Distinguished Service Order|DSO]] (9 November 1865 – 7 January 1940) was an officer in the [[British Indian Army]] from 1886 to 1921, serving in both India and Europe.<ref>{{Cite web|url-access=subscription|url=https://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/10.1093/ww/9780199540891.001.0001/ww-9780199540884-e-209644|title=Fowler, Maj.-Gen. Charles Astley, (9 Nov. 1865–7 Jan. 1940), Indian Army, retired; Colonel 22nd Punjabis|website=WHO'S WHO & WHO WAS WHO|year=2007|doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U209644|isbn=978-0-19-954089-1}}</ref> He commanded the [[37th Infantry Brigade|37th Brigade]] at the [[Battle of Loos]] in France in 1915 and was a Divisional Commander during the [[Third Afghan War]] in 1919.<ref name="times">{{cite news |title= Obituary: Major-General C. A. Fowler |work=[[The Times]] |date=8 January 1940 |page= 9}}</ref>

== Early life ==
Charles Fowler was born near [[Lahore]], [[Punjab Province (British India)|Punjab]], British India, the son of Deputy Surgeon-General Henry Day Fowler of the Indian Medical Service and Caroline Mary Oliver.<ref name="birth">''India, Select Births and Baptisms, 1786–1947''</ref> Charles also had an older brother, [[Francis John Fowler]], who also became a high-ranking Officer in the Indian Army.<ref>''Who was Who Vol III 1929-40'' (2nd. Ed. London, 1967), p. 470.</ref> He was educated in England at [[Bedford Modern School]], where he was in the first XV, and the [[Royal Military Academy Sandhurst]] and was commissioned into the [[Devonshire Regiment]] as a [[Lieutenant (British Army and Royal Marines)|lieutenant]] on 7 February 1885.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/register-of-the-old-boys-of-the-bedford-modern-school-compiled-and-edited-by-he-vipan-together-with-a-few-chapters-on-its-history-and-institutions/oclc/557698898|title=A register of the old boys of the Bedford Modern School. Compiled and edited by H.E. Vipan ... Together with a few chapters on its history and institutions.|first=England), VIPAN, Herbert Edwin|last=Bedford Modern School (Bedford|date=21 April 1901|publisher=W.J. Robinson|page=42|oclc=557698898|via=Open WorldCat}}</ref>

== Early career ==
In 1886 Fowler transferred to the Indian Army and joined the [[22nd Punjabis]] based at Moltan, and most of his active service was initially concentrated in the region of the [[North-West Frontier Province (1901–1955)|North-West Frontier Province]]. He participated in the [[Miranzai Valley|Miranzai Expedition]] of 1891, and was promoted to [[Captain (BARM)|captain]] on 7 February 1896. Attached to the [[Punjab Army|Punjab Command]], he was on 23 August 1900 appointed a temporary staff officer as deputy assistant adjutant-general to the [[Kohat]]-[[Kurram Agency|Kurram]] Force,<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=27469 |date=29 August 1902 |page=5610}}</ref> which included organizing the Kurram militia.<ref>Hart′s Army list, 1901</ref> He also fought against the Darwesh Khel Wazirs in 1902. In 1908 he served on the Mohmand expedition and fought at the engagement of Kharga, for which he was mentioned in despatches and awarded the DSO<ref>''London Gazette'', 14 August 1908, p. 6066.</ref>
He was promoted to Captain in the Indian Army in 1896; Major in 1903, Lt.-Colonel in 1907 and Colonel in 1911.<ref name="auto">''Who was Who'', p. 470</ref>

== The 37th Brigade ==
When war was declared in 1914, Fowler returned to England and was promoted to Brigadier-General in command of the [[37th Infantry Brigade]] of the [[12th (Eastern) Division]] part of [[Kitchener's Army]]. After training, the Brigade was given its first experience of the Western Front at [[Ploegsteert Wood]] on the [[Ypres Salient]] in June 1915.<ref>H.E. Trevor, Staff Major of the 37th Brigade wrote a critical appraisal of Fowler during this period at Ypres. See , Malcolm Brown, ''The Imperial War Museum Book of the Western Front'' (London, 2001), p.146</ref>
On 1 October the 37th Brigade was deployed on the front line at the [[Battle of Loos]]. After days of heavy shelling the Germans launched their attack on the British lines on 8 October. The 37th held their sector of trench and managed to counter-attack which succeeded in gaining some German-held ground until a withdrawal was forced through a shortage of grenades<ref name="1914-1918.net">{{cite web|url=http://www.1914-1918.net/bat13.htm|title=The Battle of Loos|work=1914-1918.net|access-date=3 July 2015}}</ref>

On 13 October at 2 p.m. the British launched their own attack. The original offensive on 24 September had been intended to force a decisive breach in the German lines, but despite some early success this had proved to have been beyond the British.<ref name="northernfrance.com">{{cite web|url=http://www.remembrancetrails.northernfrance.com/history/battles/the-battle-of-loos-25-september-to-19-october-1915.html|title=northernfrance.com|access-date=3 July 2015}}</ref> The aims of the second offensive were scaled back to 'skirmishing for local advantages', as [[Robert Graves]], a veteran of Loos, put it.<ref>Robert Graves ''Good-Bye to All That'', (Harmondsworth, 2014 edn.), p. 213.</ref> Chief among these was the [[Hohenzollern Redoubt]], a small but strategically vital hill in the otherwise pancake-flat countryside around Loos.<ref name="1914-1918.net"/> The British had captured the redoubt on the 25 September, but it had been retaken by the Germans on 3 October. Fowler's Brigade was given the task of capturing Gun Trench, one in a network of subsidiary German trenches that spread from the redoubt.<ref>Nick Lloyd, ''Loos, 1915'', (Stroud, 2006), p. 209.</ref>
The British advance was undermined by an inadequate artillery bombardment which failed to clear a path for the Infantry, and also by the use of poison gas which achieved little more than to warn the Germans of the impending attack.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/|title=Welcome|website=The Long, Long Trail}}</ref> The Brigade's left flank, occupied by the 6th Battalion of the [[Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment)]], was caught in a hail of machine gun fire from an unshelled German position and 409 Officers and Men were killed within barely 100 yards of the British trenches. The rest of the Brigade overcame [[enfilade]] fire to secure Gun Trench and managed to hold the position against a ferocious German counterattack over the following 24 hours, until they were finally reinforced and relieved.<ref name="1914-1918.net"/>

Although the 37th Brigade had succeeded in their prescribed task this was considered to be only a minor consolation amidst greater failures. Overall the British regarded Loos as a disaster; 59,000 British casualties, no breakthrough had been achieved and the Hohenzollern Redoubt remained in German possession until very nearly the end of the war.<ref name="northernfrance.com"/> Nevertheless, Fowler was mentioned in the despatches of Field Marshal [[Sir John French]] and was awarded the CB.<ref>''Who was Who'', p.470</ref>

== Later career ==
French was replaced by [[Sir Douglas Haig]] as Commander-in-Chief of the BEF in December 1915, and perhaps partly because of this Fowler relinquished command of the 37th Brigade in January 1916. He saw no further active service on the Western Front. In 1916 and 1917 he held a special position in the Censor's Department. In 1918 he was promoted to Major-General and at the end of the War he returned to India.<ref name="auto1">''Who was Who'', p. 470.</ref>
In May 1919 the Third Afghan War broke out as Afghanistan decided to exploit the very war-weary condition of the British by launching an invasion by 50,000 troops of British India.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://collection.nam.ac.uk/detail.php?acc=1978-11-32-11|title=The camp at Dakka, 1919 (c) | Online Collection | National Army Museum, London|website=collection.nam.ac.uk}}</ref> On 3 May the town of Bagh, situated on the British side of the Khyber Pass, was occupied by the Afghans and they fought off an immediate attempt to remove them. On 11 May Fowler, commanding the 1st and 2nd Brigades of the First Infantry Division of the Indian Army, led a second attempt to recapture Bagh. Utilising artillery and machine gun fire as well as deploying the [[Royal Air Force]] the British routed the Afghans and reoccupied the town.<ref>G. Molesworth, ''Afghanistan, 1919-An Account of Operations in the 3rd, Afghan War'', (New York, 1962), pp. 48-53, cited in [[Third Anglo-Afghan War]]</ref> Fowler was subsequently awarded the CSI.<ref name="auto1"/>

== Later life ==

On 25 July 1894, Fowler married Cicely Florence Mary Woodroffe at [[St. Thomas Church, Kolkata|St. Thomas's Church]] in Calcutta. She was the elder daughter of James Tisdall Woodroffe, Advocate-General of Bengal, and sister of Sir [[John Woodroffe]]. They had a daughter in 1895, Doris Agnes, who died in childhood, and a son, Maurice Alban James, born 1901. However, the marriage was an unhappy one, and they eventually separated in 1917. He repeatedly asked for a divorce but she refused. However, she successfully sued him for divorce on grounds of adultery in 1925.<ref>{{cite news |title=Divorce of an Army Officer. Fowler V. Fowler. |work=[[The Times]] |date= 17 January 1925|page=4 }}</ref>

Shortly afterward, he married secondly, Ethel May O'Donoghue Prideaux, ex-wife of Harry Symes Prideaux. They settled at Wargrave in Berkshire where he died in June 1940.<ref name="auto"/>

Major-General Fowler retired from the Army in 1921.

==References==
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Fowler, Charles Astley}}
[[Category:1865 births]]
[[Category:1940 deaths]]
[[Category:People educated at Bedford Modern School]]
[[Category:Companions of the Distinguished Service Order]]
[[Category:Military personnel of British India]]
[[Category:Companions of the Order of the Bath]]
[[Category:British Indian Army generals]]
[[Category:Indian Army generals of World War I]]
[[Category:Graduates of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst]]
[[Category:Devonshire Regiment officers]]

Charles Astley Fowler - Revision history

Bot at 18:53, 23 April 2022