Francis Fowke (7 July 1823 – 4 December 1865) was an Irish

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

and

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

, and a

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

in the Corps of Royal Engineers. Most of his architectural work was executed in the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

style, although he made use of relatively new technologies to create iron framed buildings, with large open galleries and spaces. Fowke was born in Ballysillan,

Belfast Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...

. He studied at The Royal School

Dungannon Dungannon (, ) is a town in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It is the second-largest town in the county (after Omagh) and had a population of 16,282 at the United Kingdom Census 2011, 2021 Census. The Dungannon and South Tyrone Borough Counci ...

, County Tyrone, and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. He obtained a commission in the Royal Engineers, and served with distinction in

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and

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. On his return to England, he was appointed architect and engineer in charge of the construction of several government buildings. Among his projects were the Prince Consort's Library in

Aldershot Aldershot ( ) is a town in the Rushmoor district, Hampshire, England. It lies on heathland in the extreme north-east corner of the county, south-west of London. The town has a population of 37,131, while the Farnborough/Aldershot built-up are ...

, the

Royal Albert Hall The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London, England. It has a seating capacity of 5,272. Since the hall's opening by Queen Victoria in 1871, the world's leading artists from many performance genres ...

and parts of the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (abbreviated V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.8 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and named after Queen ...

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, the Industrial Museum of Scotland (Edinburgh Museum of Science and Art) in

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

, and the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin. He was also responsible for planning the 1862 International Exhibition in London. The International Exhibition building was described as 'a wretched shed' by The Art Journal. Parliament declined the Government's proposal to purchase the building; the materials were sold and used for the construction of

Alexandra Palace Alexandra Palace is an entertainment and sports venue in North London, situated between Wood Green and Muswell Hill in the London Borough of Haringey. A listed building, Grade II listed building, it is built on the site of Tottenham Wood and th ...

. Before his sudden death from a burst blood vessel, he won the competition for the design of the

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, although he did not live to see it executed. His renaissance designs for the museum were altered and realised in the 1870s by Alfred Waterhouse, on the site of Fowke's Exhibition building. He died in 1865 and is buried in

Brompton Cemetery Brompton Cemetery (originally the West of London and Westminster Cemetery) is since 1852 the first (and only) London cemetery to be Crown Estate, Crown property, managed by The Royal Parks, in West Brompton in the Royal Borough of Kensington a ...

, London. A medal was issued by the Royal Engineers in 1865, as a memorial prize for architectural works carried out by members of the corps. With the demise of great architectural works the prize has transformed into the prize awarded to the top student on the

Royal Engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is the engineering arm of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces ...

Clerks of Works course.

Gallery of architectural work

File:Londres 453..jpg, Victoria & Albert Museum, north side of garden, original main entrance File:Royal Albert Hall.jpg, Royal Albert Hall File:Royal Museum.jpg, Edinburgh Museum of Science and Art (Royal Museum) File:Royal Museum, Edinburgh, main hall.jpg, Edinburgh Museum of Science and Art (Royal Museum), main hall

References

Royal Engineers Museum
– Biography of Captain Francis Fowke

– Dictionary of Ulster Biography {{DEFAULTSORT:Fowke, Francis British civil engineers Royal Engineers officers 1823 births 1865 deaths Burials at Brompton Cemetery Architects from Belfast 19th-century British engineers 19th-century British Army personnel 19th-century Irish architects Engineers from Belfast Military personnel from Belfast