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Sir John Fowler, 1st Baronet, was born at Wadsley, Sheffield, in 1817. By 1844 he had established himself in London as a consulting engineer specialising in the laying out and construction of railways. Fowler was appointed by the Severn Valley Railway Company in 1855 following the early death of their first Chief Engineer, Robert Nicholson. By the time of his appointment, Fowler had already worked on many railway schemes including the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway, the East Lincolnshire Railway, and the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway. He had also been appointed Chief Engineer of London’s first underground railway, the Metropolitan Railway, in 1853.