Born in London on 5 March 1888, son of Walter Fowler FRCS 1858-1917, and grandson of Robert Fowler, a doctor. His parents emigrated to Victoria, Australia, in 1891, where Walter Fowler practised at Echuca and became superintendent of Bendigo Hospital. Robert was educated in Melbourne at Caulfield Grammar School and as a scholar of Trinity College in the University. He graduated in 1909 in a distinguished class which included Victor Hurley and Alan Newton, both subsequently eminent surgeons; and served as resident medical officer at Melbourne Hospital in 1910. At the University he was Beaney Scholar in pathology in 1911 and assistant lecturer on pathology in 1923, the year in which he obtained his MD degree. During 1912-14 he made postgraduate studies in England and visited several leading European surgical clinics. Fowler joined the Australian Army Medical Corps as a volunteer in 1910, and saw active service through the first world war. He served during 1915 at Gallipoli and in hospital ships between there and Egypt, then as Colonel in command of 14 Australian General Hospital, and finally as Assistant Director of Medical Services with the Australian Mounted Division in the Palestine Campaign of 1917-18; he organised the medical services at Damascus after the Turkish capitulation and the breakdown of the local administration. He was mentioned in despatches, awarded the Volunteer Decoration, and created an officer of the Order of the British Empire. Robert Fowler took the Fellowship in 1920 and returned to Melbourne, intending to practise as a general surgeon; soon however he specialised in gynaecological surgery. He was obstetric surgeon to the Women's Hospital 1921-24, and consulting gynaecologist to the Alfred Hospital 1923-48 and the Austin Hospital 1927-35. At the Alfred he was an outstanding personality as surgeon, administrator and teacher. His gynaecological clinic became known internationally, and he was always ready to adopt the newest improvements in equipment and technique. He was appointed an honorary surgeon to the Governor-General of the Commonwealth 1931-35. He was a member of Council of the Victoria branch of the British Medical Association and secretary of the Section of Obstetrics and Gynaecology when the Association held its annual meeting in Melbourne in 1935. He had been elected a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons in 1924, and was a founding Fellow of the Royal Australasian College in 1927. Between the wars and against official indifference Fowler advocated establishing an anti-malaria service for the Army and co-operation with the Air Force in a full-scale air-ambulance corps. When war broke out in 1939 his ideas were belatedly put into action. He served at first with the Royal Australian Air Force, then as Commanding Officer of 117 Australian General Hospital, and finally as Deputy Director of Medical Services in the Southern Command. Fowler was long concerned with the cancer problem, and active in promoting facilities for its control and better treatment throughout Australia, beyond the great achievements of his own clinic in the surgical treatment of cancer in women. He served on the Anti-Cancer Council of Victoria from its beginning in 1936, and created its Central Cancer Registry. This registry he managed personally for many years, collecting and publishing detailed statistics of the incidence and treatment of cancer on a scale unprecedented in the Southern Hemisphere. The Council commemorated his work by founding its Robert Fowler Travelling Scholarship for Cancer Research. At the University of Melbourne he was a member from 1930 of the Steering Committee of Convocation and its Warden 1959-63; he was then elected to the University Council. He was an excellent chairman and equipped as a public speaker with a rare knowledge and love of classic literary English. Fowler practised at 14 Parliament Place, Melbourne, and lived at Irving Road, Toorak. He died on 8 May 1965 aged seventy-seven, survived by his wife, with their two daughters and their son Robert, surgeon to the Royal Childrens' Hospital, Melbourne. Publications: Listerian oration; health of foetus, or true national insurance: review of certain aspects of foetal environment. *Med J Aust* 1939, 2, 155-164. Arms and anophelines or military significance of malaria. With A H Baldwin. *Med J Aust* 1942, 2, 455-459.