Charles Henry Cowley

Epithet: Pharmacist and antiquarian (1874-1944)

Record type: Biographies

Biography: From ‘New Manx Worthies’ (2006):

Charles Henry Cowley, or Harry as he was better known, was brought up by a relative after his mother died when he was three weeks old. It is believed that his mother, Kate, had caught a chill while watching the first Isle of Man Steam Railway train to arrive from Douglas.

His father William had travelled extensively in India and South America before opening his chemist's shop back in Peel in 1871. Harry followed his father's bent in 1892, when he was eighteen, by sailing off to Australia on SS Ophir. After some time spent in Sydney, he enlisted in the Artillery Brigade based at Watson's Bay, as an acting bombardier. After a period spent sheep-shearing in the outback, he then moved on to Melbourne. From there, Harry travelled westward, eventually walking across the Nullarbor Desert, following the railway line and surviving by drinking from stagnant pools. He found work in the gold rush towns of Kalgoorlie and Coolgardie as a lather boy in a barber's shop and as a decorator's assistant. Becoming alarmed at the high rates of death and disease, in 1895 he decided to return home, joining his younger brother William in the chemist's shop.

After two years, he again felt restless and set off for South Africa, sailing on SS Lismore Castle. He found work in the Kimberley diamond fields and was going to join Cecil Rhodes' expeditionary force which was about to set off for the unsettled territory in the north (the future Rhodesia, today's Zimbabwe), when he was stopped in his tracks by a cable bringing bad news. Back in Peel, his brother William, aged 24, had died in the shop. Now Harry had to return to Peel to run the family business.

Here he married Isobel Leece, who had been his brother's fiancée. She suffered poor health and died in 1935. Their two sons, a pharmacist and an optician, followed him into the business. Harry remarried in 1936 and moved from the family home at Ballaquane with his second wife, Ann, to live in Albany Road in Peel.

Even though keenly interested in local public affairs, Harry was never persuaded to take any political office. He remained a most patriotic Manxman, greatly interested in many topics relating to the Isle of Man - its history, its archaeology and its language, Manx Gaelic, which he spoke and wrote fluently. He joined the Isle of Man Natural History and Antiquarian Society in 1902, becoming its president in 1928 and 1929. He led the society's archaeological section for some years, being responsible for its reports and acting as secretary for the Peel district. He frequently acted as guide on the society's excursions and gave several papers at winter meetings, both on and off the Island. His archaeological interests led him to become an authority on prehistoric flints. In December 1921 one of his papers on pigmy flints was published in the 'British Archaeological Association Journal'.

He also maintained an interest in several organisations in his home town, being a warden at Peel Parish Church (now the Cathedral Church of Sodor and Man), chairman of the charity the Dale Trust, a trustee of the Corrin Estate, a member of Peel Waterworks Authority, and for many years a committee member of Peel's Ward Library.

Throughout his life Charles Henry Cowley made an important contribution to Manx history, becoming widely known and greatly respected, with a wide circle of friends. He died in 1944 and was buried in Peel Cemetery. Ann, his second wife, died in 1996. His remarkable collection of some 6000 pre-historic artefacts, including fine specimens of arrowheads and axes, now known as the C.H. Cowley Collection, was presented to the Manx Museum by his son Ernest in 1944.

Biography written by Pauline Oliver (granddaughter) and Leslie Quilliam.

(With thanks to Culture Vannin as publishers of the book: Kelly, Dollin (general editor), ‘New Manx Worthies’, Manx Heritage Foundation/Culture Vannin, 2006, pp.122-3.)

Culture Vannin

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Nationality: Manx

Gender: Male

Date of birth: 1874

Date of death: 6 November 1944

Name Variant: Cowley, C.H., Mr

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