[2] Fowler was educated at Northampton Grammar School (where he was a friend of Bernard Donoughue), Lincoln College, Oxford, and Frankfurt University.
He was a lecturer in classics at Lancaster University, from 1964 to 1966 until he entered the House of Commons in 1966.
After two years as a Parliamentary Secretary at the Ministry of Technology, Fowler was the Minister of State for Education and Science from 1969 to 1970.
He was there again for spells in 1974 and 1976, in between which times he was Minister of State for the Privy Council Office from 1974 to 1976.
[6] Fowler died of cancer at his home in Regent's Park, London,[4] on 1 May (coincidentally Labour Day) 1993 aged 58, and was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium.