The son of Captain Richard Gowlland, RN, whose father, Richard Gowlland, a merchant and Freeman of Canterbury, had married Sarah Sankey, sister of Mathew, Mayor of Canterbury. Peter Gowlland seems to have obtained his second name from family friends who were Russian merchants. He was educated privately and entered the London Hospital in 1845. He served as House Surgeon and became Senior Demonstrator of Anatomy. He was elected Assistant Surgeon on March 25th, 1858, and was appointed Lecturer on Anatomy. He proved a successful teacher and was a good draughtsman. Some of his diagrams were long used by succeeding lecturers, and a fine collection of his signed water-colour sketches of cases of surgical pathology, accompanied by manuscript explanations, are preserved in the Library of the Royal College of Surgeons. In addition to his work at the London Hospital he was for ten years Surgeon to the Islington Dispensary and was for some time Surgeon to St Mark's Hospital for Fistula and Diseases of the Rectum. Having acquired a large private practice in the treatment of rectal diseases, he resigned his post at the London Hospital on reaching the position of Senior Assistant Surgeon in April, 1862. He practised for forty years at 40 Finsbury Square, EC, and moved to 163 Gloucester Terrace, Regent's Park, in 1893, where he died on August 11th, 1896, and was buried in Highgate Cemetery. He married Elizabeth Rosina Susan, daughter of John Wilkinson, and by her had a son and a daughter. Peter Yeames, his son - a barrister - died before his father at the age of 28; his daughter Rose married Douglas Barry. Peter Yeames Gowlland was Brigade Surgeon to the Honourable Artillery Company and acted as Hon Surgeon to the Artists' Annuity Fund. He was a member of the FitzRoy Lodge of Freemasons, No 569, which is attached to the HAC. He was a good sportsman and was extremely fond of fishing at Chartham in Kent. He was also a good shot, and the heads of many deer were hung as trophies in his dining-room. A portrait, presented by his daughter, Mrs Barry, hangs in the London Hospital Medical School.