William Frederick Gowers

Sir William Frederick Gowers, KCMG (31 December 1875 – 7 October 1954) was a British colonial administrator who was Governor of Uganda from 1925 to 1932. Early years Gowers was born 31 December 1875 in London. He was educated at Rugby School and then at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated BA in 1898 with a First in the Classical Tripos. 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. He was the elder brother of Ernest Gowers. Nigeria 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. During the First World War Gowers served as political adviser in the Cameroons Expeditionary Force (1915–1916). He rose to the position of Lieutenant-Governor of the Northern Province of Nigeria.