... was a civil servant. His last full–time position was Senior Regional Commissioner for Civil Defence, London Region (1940–5). He had first gone into print on the subject of bureaucratic English usage in 1929, in an article entitled Mainly About the King's English, and he continued this crusade throughout his career. After the end of World War II, he was invited by Sir Edward Bridges, head of the home civil service, to write a pamphlet on English usage for use in civil service training courses. The result, Plain Words (1948), was a great success, and was followed three years later by ABC of Plain Words. In 1954 the two books were combined, and published by HM Stationery Office as The Complete Plain Words. This has undergone three revisions, the latest being compiled by the great–granddaughter of the original author and published in 2014 by Penguin.
In 1956, at the age of 76, Gowers accepted a commission from the Oxford University Press to undertake the first revision of Fowler's Dictionary of Modern English Usage, which had been in print since 1926 with only very minor changes. It took him nine years to complete the task. In 1996, Gowers's edition was succeeded by a more radical revision, edited by Robert Burchfield (Chief Editor of the Oxford English Dictionary).
Gowers died in 1966, aged 85 – nine months after the publication of his revision of Fowler's Modern English Usage.
Robert Burchfield wrote in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography that "The books on 'plain words' show [Gowers's] regard for brevity and precision as the leading virtues in factual writing. Throughout his life he crusaded against the faults which have made 'officialese' a term of opprobrium and in favour of simple and direct English."
© Haydn Thompson 2021