Richard Fowler was born on 29 March 1886 at Ince, Wigan, Lancashire, one of five children of Richard Fowler, a coal miner, and his wife Ellen (née Mills).  Around 1887, the family moved to Hindley, a coal mining area to the east of Wigan. In the 1901 census, Richard, although only 15, is recorded as a coal miner labourer (below ground).  His eldest brother, Robert, 26, is also a coal miner (hewer).  Their father is recorded as a ‘totaller – coal miner’. Another brother, John, had died in 1898 at the age of 21.

Richard joined the Royal Navy initially as a Stoker 2nd Class in February 1908, recording his previous employment as ‘pumping engine minder’, but life as a stoker clearly did not suit and he bought his discharge a year later. In the 1911 census, living with his family, he is recorded as an engine fitter at a ‘steam engine makers’.  Later that year, he married Elizabeth Ann Hodkinson, daughter of another collieryman, at Wigan.

He joined the Navy for the second time at Chatham in November 1915 as an Acting Engine Room Artificer 4th Class, with his record noting that he had previous Merchant Service experience as a 3rd Marine Engineer. He served briefly in the Ant-class gunboat HMS BUSTARD and then the pre-dreadnought HMS MARS.

He joined HMS DOLPHIN on 19 July 1917, and at the end of the month moved to HMS ALECTO, depot ship for the Eighth Submarine Flotilla which was part of the Harwich Force. He was killed on 22 March 1918 in an explosion, reportedly in HMS V2 in the course of testing the Diving Compass.  According to his service record, an inquest was held resulting in a verdict of accidental death, but no further records of this have been found.  He was buried at Hindley Cemetery.

He left a widow, Elizabeth, and three children.