Powles, Richard Cowley (1819 -1901)

Richard Cowley Powles was the eldest son of John Diston Powles, a merchant, and his second wife Emma Frances Ogle. He attended Helston Grammar School in Cornwall where in January 1833 he met for the first time his lifelong friend Charles Kingsley. After Helston the two men met again in 1837 at King’s College, London. Richard went on the Exeter College Oxford where he received his B.A. in 1842, and was elected to a fellowship. However, he resigned his fellowship in 1850 as he was planning to get married and only bachelors could hold fellowships. On 13 June 1850 he married Mary Chester, daughter of George Chester of the Indian Civil Service. In 1850 Powles bought a school at 9 Eliot Place Blackheath in London, which he ran with his wife, three assistant schoolmasters, a matron and other servants. He retired in 1865 and two years later moved to the village of Eversley in Hampshire, where Charles Kingsley had become a rector of the local Church. In Eversley Powles started another school until 1881, when he and his wife retired to Chichester. Taking an active role in the life of Chichester Cathedral, he became an Examining Chaplain and then Prebendary of Seaford in 1887.