Sir Ernest Arthur Gowers (/ˈɡaʊ.ərz/; 2 June 1880 – 16 April 1966) was a British civil servant and author who is best remembered for his book Plain Words, first published in 1948, and his revision of Fowler's classic Modern English Usage.

After the Second World War, he was appointed chairman of numerous government inquiries, including the 1949 Royal Commission into Capital Punishment.

Their sisters, Edith and Evelyn, mainly schooled at home, both lost their sight after developing Retinitis pigmentosa in early adult life.

[8] In December 1903 he passed the Civil Service Examination, and embarked on the career that led to the claim that he "may be regarded as one of the greatest public servants of his day.

[10] In November 1912 Lloyd George appointed him to the National Health Insurance Commission, as one of a team of promising young civil servants (including John Anderson, Warren Fisher, Arthur Salter, and Claud Schuster) nicknamed the "Loan Collection" as they had been hand-picked from across the civil service.

While nominally continuing to hold his post, Gowers was attached to the Foreign Office working under Charles Masterman MP at Wellington House, Britain's top-secret wartime propaganda unit.

The Times commented, "Sir Ernest Gowers and his colleagues struggled manfully with their difficulties, but Parliament had inadvertently tied their hands behind their backs.

Energetic, forceful, always cheerful, with an unfailing eye for the essential, he gave the impression of being master of every unexpected development and, as a result, infused confidence into all who came in contact with him.

[25] This did not prevent his being invited to chair a series of committees of inquiry on Women in the Foreign Service (1945); Closing Hours of Shops (1946); Houses of Outstanding Historic or Architectural Interest (1948); and Foot-and-mouth Disease (1952).

The Problem of Capital Punishment (1956),[26] of which H L A Hart wrote, "Certainly the publication of this report in England introduced altogether new standards of clarity and relevance into discussions of a subject which had too often been obscured by ignorance and prejudice.

[31] In 1956, at the age of 76, Gowers accepted a commission from the Oxford University Press to undertake the first revision of H W Fowler's Modern English Usage, which had been in print since 1926 with only very minor changes.

[32] Gowers bought a house in Sussex in the 1930s and lived there permanently after the war, writing books and managing a small farm.

Gowers died in April 1966, at King Edward VII Hospital, Midhurst, Sussex, age 85, nine months after his revision of Fowler's Modern English Usage was published.

When Kit died in 1952, one of their daughters, the oboist Peggy Shiffner,[33] gave up her career and moved in to look after him, also working as a volunteer at Le Court.