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The Exercise of Power: British Representatives 173

LIEUTENANT-COLONEL SIR T. C. W. FOWLE kcie, cbe,
POLITICAL RESIDENT 1932-9

Fowlc’s appointment to the Residency in Bushirc in July 1932
1
following the death in office of Hugh Biscoc was the culmination
of many years of hard work and an early desire to exert political
authority within the framework of the Indian Service. Born in
England in 1884, lie was educated at Clifton College, joined the
British Army in 1905 and was transferred to the Indian Army
two years later. Within a few years he was keen to enter the
select Political Service,29 for which he prepared by learning Pushtu,
Urdu, Arabic and Persian. He was particularly interested in Arabic
and Persian, and between 1910 and 1913 he travelled to Persia
and what arc now Syria, Iraq and Lebanon in order to perfect
his knowledge.30 At the onset of World War I he was transferred
on probation to the Political Department, and served as a Political
Officer in Mesopotamia from 1915 to 1918, with a brief spell
as assistant to the Political Agent in Bahrain for five months in
1916. It is clear from his personal file31 that his work in Mesopotamia
was not greatly appreciated by his superiors, especially Percy Cox,32
and he seemed destined to return to the army after the end of
the war. In 1920, however, he was confirmed as an officer of
the Political Department, and, after a scries of postings in Mashhad,
Scistan, Baluchistan and Kerman, became Assistant Resident in
Aden from 1925 to 1928. The next year he became secretary to
the Resident at Bushirc, and he was Political Agent at Muscat
from 1930 to 1932, during which time he officiated as Political
Resident.
He thus brought with him a deep knowledge not only of Arabic
customs, language and culture, but also considerable experience
as a British official in the Arabian peninsula. There is little doubt
that he would have disagreed with Sir Ronald Wingate that his
appointment to the Gulf was regarded ‘as a form of punishment,
or exile, or the reward of eccentricity’.33 He was clearly convinced
of his mission and its importance, and was obviously pleased with
his accomplishments. The unusual length of his tenure, in contrast
to the shortness of tenure of so many of his predecessors, strengthened
his position and allowed him to acquire a greater knowledge of
the area while the fact that the period of his office coincided
with a crucial time in the development of the Gulf added to
the special quality of his rule. His attitudes and the methods he
used to enforce policy are thus of particular importance to the
study of Britain in the Gulf.
Fowle’s attitude, and indeed that of his predecessors, towards
the people of the Gulf, especially those on the Arab side, was