Hubert William Fowler

My friend’s Grandfather, Hubert William Fowler, was a musician in the Royal Marines (RMB 1245). The first photograph (circa 1915) shows him in dress uniform aged 22. He left school at the end of 1906 and joined the Royal Marines at Forton Barracks on the 1st February 1907, aged 14 years 2 ½ months, as an errand boy, later classified as messenger. However he joined to be a band boy and after initial infantry training, on the 1st December 1908 aged 16, he transferred to Eastney Barracks, the HQ of the Royal Naval School of Music. He learnt to play two instruments, the clarinet and the violin.

On qualifying as a musician he received his first draft to sea joining HMS Queen at Devonport. In 1912 he was drafted to the battleship HMS Zealandia which was the flagship of the Vice-Admiral 2nd and 3rd Fleets based at Sheerness. On the 14 November 1912 he joined the newly commissioned Battle Cruiser HMS Princess Royal on which he served for 6 years throughout the Great War. He saw action on a number of occasions including the Battle of Jutland and intended to make the Royal Marines his career but was invalided out in 1919 due to frostbite which was a great disappointment to him. His discharge papers state he was a very good clarinet and violin player.

Graham Hoskins