Herbert Cowley (1885 – November 1967) was a British botanist, gardener, garden photographer and garden writer who edited The Garden journal from 1915 to the mid-1920s. He wrote many gardening books until retiring in 1936. Cowley was a member of the Kew Guild and active in the Kew Guild for Old Kewites, former and serving Kew Gardens staff. He also edited the Kew Guild Journal. After four years as journal editor or sub-editor from 1909 to 1914 and military service from 1914 to 1915, he became editor of The Garden in 1915/16 and carried on as a gardening writer until around 1936. Early life His father Henry Cowley (died 3 April 1930 at Easton, Portland, Dorset) was a "domestic gardener" on Census records. Father Henry and mother Mary Ann Cowley are listed as living in Wantage, Berkshire, in the 1920s. Herbert worked at Lockinge Gardens in Berkshire before studying at Swanley College for two years, one of the last eight male students before it became a female horticultural college around 1902. He worked for the royal garden at Frogmore and after Swanley for the famous nursery family of Veitch's at Feltham. Cowley joined the staff of Kew Gardens, eventually settling in the Orchid department in 1905. He was involved in Kew's Mutual Improvement Lectures in the 1906/07 season. Sadly, this pre-war lecture lists contain the names of some of other Kew staff including C. F. Ball, who would soon be killed on active service. His Kew Guild Journal obituary in 1968 mentions prewar plant hunting trips to the Dolomites and a notable visit to Bulgaria as a guest of King Ferdinand, in the company of Kew contemporary C. F. Ball of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin, in Dublin. Ball was killed as a Private in the Royal Dublin Fusiliers on 13 September 1915 as part of the Gallipoli campaign. Ball's obituary in The Garden was written by his Kew contemporary and editor friend Cowley. Cowley left Kew around 1907 to join The Gardener magazine as a subeditor (later called Popular Gardening). Herbert Cowley became Assistant Editor or Sub-Editor at a different title, The Garden in 1910. This was the magazine he was to return to as Editor after military service in 1915/6 until c. 1926. Cowley then edited Gardening Illustrated from 1923 to 1926. He appears also to have written garden articles for Country Life after 1911. He also worked