William Frederick Gowers

Gowers was born 31 December 1875 in London. He was educated at Rugby School and then at Trinity College, Cambridge,[1] where he graduated BA in 1898 with a First in the Classical Tripos.[2] He retained his interest in the classics throughout his life. He went to Africa in 1899 as an employee of the British South Africa Company (BSA) and became an assistant Native Commissioner in Matabeleland, in what is now western Zimbabwe, leaving this post in 1902.[3]

He was the elder brother of Ernest Gowers.

In 1902, Gowers resigned from the BSA and joined the Colonial Service, taking the job of third-class resident in Northern Nigeria. He took up this post two years after the Protectorate of Nigeria had been declared, and saw the occupation of the Moslem Emirates of the region under Frederick Lugard's policy of indirect rule.[1] During the First World War Gowers served as political adviser in the Cameroons Expeditionary Force (1915–1916).[1] He rose to the position of Lieutenant-Governor of the Northern Province of Nigeria.[3]

From 1925 to 1932 Gowers was Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Uganda Protectorate.[1] Soon after taking office, Gowers proposed a remedy to the practice of payment of envujo on cash crops, which colonial officials had denounced as "repugnant to justice and morality". His recommendation was to make envujo payable to the British administration rather than to African landlords.[4] On the question of the Toro Kingdom, which the British had restored after driving out the Banyoro, Gowers felt that the agreement made at the time was simply a declaration of principle by the protecting power. The British were free to deal with the kingdom as they saw fit.[5]

Committees on language policy in Uganda had recommended teaching Acholi in the north, Teso in parts of the eastern province and Luganda elsewhere.

As governor of Uganda, Gowers pointed out the local importance of Swahili, a Bantu language also spoken in Kenya and Tanganyika and the eastern Congo. He was perhaps anticipating the need for a common language in a federation of territories in the African Great Lakes region.[6]

In 1926, Sir Edward Grigg, Governor of British Kenya, called a conference in Nairobi to discuss closer union of the African Great Lakes colonies, which Sir William Gowers fully supported. However, Governor Donald Charles Cameron of Tanganyika was firmly against it, thinking it would be unjust to Africans.[7]

Gowers was appointed Senior Crown Agent for the Colonies (1932–1938), Deputy Chairman of the Cereals Control Board (1939–1940) and Civil Defence Liaison Officer, Southern Command (1940–1942). Gowers died on 7 October 1954.[1]