J. E. Bowler

When John Hilton became the first Director of Antiquities in Cyprus, he chose as his foreman J. E. Bowler of the Office of Works in Yorkshire. Hilton made the selection with Ormsby-Gore's help after touring ancient monuments to interview candidates, and Bowler reached Cyprus about three weeks after Hilton arrived in Nicosia on 9 November 1934¹. His forename is not recorded.

Famagusta had priority, and the work suited Bowler's experience. He began at once to train Cypriot masons, and a foreman to succeed him¹. Stanley-Price writes that Hilton, as architect, and Bowler, as foreman, built on earlier work and completed about half of the most urgent interventions by the end of Hilton's tenure; Hilton, forty years later, called Bowler "one of the best men I have ever known"¹. Porphyrios Dikaios thanked "Mr. J. Bowler, Superintendent of Works in the Department 1934-9" for "much technical help" in the preface to his Khirokitia report².

Stanley-Price records that the formal style of A. H. S. Megaw, Hilton's successor as Director, irritated both Dikaios and Bowler, and that the strained relationship led Bowler to leave in February 1939¹.