Margaret Fairless Dowson - Sussex Author

​In 1901 a young woman aged thirty-two died at Mockbridge House, Henfield, West Sussex. It is unlikely that anyone in Henfield knew of her passing. The family had rented rooms there from the Bowler family, who were brewers. She had come to stay there with her adopted family during the summer months in the last two years of her life: her name was Margaret Fairless Dowson, the author of the book The Roadmender. The book was written under her pen name of Michael Fairless, and was published in 1902 by her family six months after her death. ‘Michael’, her pen name, was taken from a child who she met though the Dowson family, and who, according to Mary Emily Dowson, became Sir Michael Joseph McDonnell CBE (1882-1956), Chief Justice of Palestine from 1927 to 1936: ‘Fairless’ was her father’s Christian name. The book became a best seller, about fifty reprints were produced between 1902 and 1930 and an estimated 300,000 copies of the book were sold, reaching as far afield as Australia.

Margaret Fairless Dowson (Barber) at Mockbridge House with French Bulldog Jacob. Image: Henfield Museum

Margaret was a private person, and did not seek publicity. Her adopted family respected her wish after her death, but with the success of her book much speculation arose about who the author was, and the whereabouts of the ‘Roadmender Country’ of which she wrote. Her family thought it was better to put the record straight, so in 1909 they published Michael Fairless Life and Writings. Her married sister Agnes Marion Haggard dealt with her life history, and her adopted mother Mary Emily Dowson, under the pen name of William Scott Palmer, dealt with her literary works. A potted version of her life story, as told by her sister, is covered in the following paragraphs, with additional content being added by the author of this article. What was not divulged by the family was where she had stayed in Sussex, and where she was buried.

Castle Hill House, Rastrick near Brighouse

​Margaret was born at Castle Hill House, Rastrick, West Yorkshire on the 7th May 1869, and was known by her family first of all as ‘Baba’, and later as Marjorie. She came from a middle-class family; her father Fairless Barber was a lawyer, and her mother Maria was a cultivated woman who had studied French, German, and Italian. Margaret was brought up surrounded by books, and by the age of twelve had read all of Charles Dickens, and most of Sir Walter Scott, and could also play chess. She had psychic gifts, and was telepathic to a high degree, something she inherited from her mother. It was her mother, and sister Agnes, who provided her early education. Aged about thirteen she went away to boarding school at Torquay. This was followed by a period at another private school called ‘Saxonhurst’ in Etchingham Park Road, North Finchley, London. The school was run by Miss Boyer-Brown, who it was said was ‘far from appreciating her.’ Obviously, she was a strong-willed child who liked to get her own way. She actually received very little formal education.

Margaret Fairless Dowson (Barber) aged 15, Saxonhurst School photo, 1884. Image: Henfield Museum

Her father died unexpectedly in 1881 aged fifty while away at Hillingdon, Uxbridge. After the death of her husband Maria Barber moved to Hoxne in Suffolk, probably to be near her married daughter Agnes, who was living at Ditchingham, and had married John George Haggard (1850-1908) in 1886. It was in Suffolk that Maria died in 1891 aged fifty-eight. Margaret’s other sister Mabel had married Joseph Oliver in 1883, and initially lived at Castle Hill House, but died at Sedbergh, Yorkshire in 1906 aged 43 years.

With both her sisters married, Margaret was now on her own. She spent some time back at Torquay nursing an ailing relative. This was followed by a period working in a small children’s hospital on the outskirts of London, and then doing philanthropic work in a slum area of East London known as ‘The Jago.’ She also travelled abroad, and spent quite a lot of time in Germany where she stayed with a friend in a village on the Rhine.

Waldon Hill and Clock Tower, Torquay

​Margaret grew very tall, and had suffered from spinal weakness since her teenage years, which limited what she was able to do. This got worse as time went by, and by about 1895 she was virtually an invalid, and being cared for by what her family described as; “a decrepit old woman as a maid, and a mentally borderline girl as her temporary ward,” in a gate lodge to a derelict country house on the Bath Road. It was around this time, on an errand, that she came into contact with the Dowson family, who lived in London at 91 Cheyne Walk, on the Chelsea Embankment. Joseph Dowson was a civil engineer, and his wife Mary as well as being an author, was also a qualified physician. Margaret and the Dowson family had shared interests i.e. literary, scientific, and artistic. She became very ill whilst staying with the Dowsons, but after some months made a partial recovery, and ended up staying with the family for the rest of her life. They became in effect her new family, and under a deed dated 10th March 1896 she formally took the name Dowson, to the disapproval of certain members of the Barber family. Her sister Agnes however approved, because she knew she would be well cared for during her periods of illness, and would be able to follow her artistic bent in whatever direction it took her.

91 Cheyne Walk back left, looking north across Battersea Bridge and close-up

​As Margaret became more housebound, she took to modelling in clay again, something she had done whilst at Torquay. She produced a wonderful crucifix in a 14th century design, which she presented to St. John the Baptist Church in Pimlico Road, London. Sometime later the church was demolished, but the crucifix and altar found a new home in nearby St. Barnabas Church, in St. Barnabas Street, where they remain to this day. In the last year or two of her life, when ill health prevented her modelling, she turned to writing. Near the end of her life this too became more and more difficult, and finally she had to dictate the words to her books.

St. Barnabas Church, Pimlico

In the summer months, to get away from the heat and noise of London, the family came to stay at Mockbridge House. Frank Bowler would fetch the family from Partridge Green station in his brewer’s van. Margaret slept in the downstairs room of the house, which opened out onto the garden. She would spend many hours outside under her favourite sycamore tree, which Mr Bowler had planted many years before. It was here, and in London, that she wrote her book The Roadmender. It was first serialised in a magazine called The Pilot, before being published as a book on the 28th February 1902.

Mockbridge House, Shermanbury. The room on the left side of the doorway is where Margaret stayed

She finished proof reading her other book, The Gathering of Brother Hilarius, shortly before her death, and it was first published in 1901. The other book credited to her is The Grey Brethren, a collection of her stories, poems, and sketches, which was published in 1905, and went to at least a ninth reprint in 1920. Margaret was also working on another untitled book, the beginning of which was printed as an appendix in the 1930s reprints of The Roadmender, along with some of the letters she had written. She was a prolific writer of letters, and would sign them as Marjorie Dowson, rather than Margaret Dowson. The untitled book is similar in style to her other works, and features a man named Toutseul on his travels: she also wrote four children’s stories.

Margaret with pet dog Jacob, and sisters, Mockbridge House, 1900. Image: Henfield Museum

A lot of what appears in her books is taken from her life experiences. An example of this in The Roadmender is describing travelling in a wagon to the mill, which echoes her experience of travelling in Bowler’s brewery van; described in one of her letters. The second half of The Roadmender is really a diary covering the last few months of her life. She was aware her life would be cut short, and wrote her will dated 8th June 1899 at the age of thirty. The sole beneficiary in her will was her adopted mother, who was to receive £2,625, about £240,000 in today’s money.

After many hours of unconsciousness, her family by her bedside, the end came in the early hours of the morning of the 24th August 1901. Her sister Agnes picked some wild pansies from the garden and placed them in the form of a cross on her chest. On the death certificate her adopted father is named as being present at her death, and her adopted mother certified the death. The causes of death were TB, which she had suffered from for two years, and kidney failure. It was her wish to be buried in nearby St. Giles’ churchyard at Shermanbury, but this was not possible as it had been closed to burials in the late 1800s; instead, she was buried on the eastern side of St James's churchyard, at Ashurst, only 2½ miles away from Mockbridge House as the crow flies. Her body was taken to the church in the brewery van, which was decorated in evergreen foliage. Her friend Walter Frere took the service; he was later to become Bishop of Truro between 1923 and 1935.

St. Giles Church, Shermanbury, where Margaret wanted to be buried. In The Roadmender she writes: “There is a place waiting for me under the firs in the quiet churchyard.”

Margaret did not write for personal gain, instead it was done to support her charitable work. She only became famous after her death through the success of her book The Roadmender.

St. Hugh's Charterhouse near Cowfold

In 1915 the author of The Roadmender’s Country, Arthur Henry Anderson, started to take an interest in the mystery of her abode in Sussex, and her place of burial, but this was then put on hold until after WW1. The big clue in The Roadmender book was the mention of St. Hugh’s Monastery, which is about one mile north of Mockbridge House. In the book she writes: “The bell rings out crisp and clear from the Monastery where the bedesmen of St. Hugh watch and pray for our souls on this labouring forgetful earth. When the wind is north the sound carries as far as my road.” She also talks of the ‘lean grey downs’ keeping watch and ward between the country and the sea. This refers to the South Downs, about three miles away to the south, which she could see from Mockbridge House.

The South Downs from the River Adur at Ashurst

She talks of the cry of a peacock strayed from the great house: the house would have been Ewhurst Manor, about half a mile away to the north. In the book she also talks a lot about being out in the garden at Mockbridge House. On page one of The Roadmender, she says: “opposite me is a white gate, seldom used, if one may judge from the trail of honeysuckle growing tranquilly along it: I know now that whenever and wherever I die my soul will pass out through this white gate; and then, thank God, I shall not have need to undo that trail.” A number of farm gates were painted white around this area, and one is depicted in a photograph which hung in Mockbridge House.

One of the white gates near Mockbridge House

Arthur Henry Anderson resumed his research in 1921, and placed an article in the Observer newspaper on the 21st August that year, to mark the 20th anniversary of her death. In it he mentions the mystery that still remains regarding where she died, and her final resting place. The article initiated a response from Revd. A. W. Powell, of St. Andrew’s Church, Minley in Hampshire, who said she was buried at Ashurst. Another response came from a reader who didn’t give his name, but called himself ‘A limbless survivor of the war’ who confirmed she stayed at Mockbridge House. This man was actually Percy Bowler, the son of the brewer, who had lost a leg in WW1. His brother Frank was killed in the war. Percy also had a sister Marjorie Annie who was born in 1901. In The Roadmender book the author writes: “There is a child here, a happy quiet little creature holding gently to its two months of life. Sometimes they lay it beside me, I the more helpless of the two – perhaps the more ignorant – and equally dependent for the supply of the smallest need.” That little girl was Marjorie Annie Bowler, and the author became her Godmother. Mary Dowson also responded to the article confirming the facts. She also stated that the little church at the foot of the grey green down mentioned in her book was not actually at Sussex, but she didn’t divulge its whereabouts. There had been speculation that it could have been either St Andrew’s Church at Edburton, or Buncton Chapel at Wiston. At the time of the articles appearing in the paper the Dowson family were living at Landhurst Wood, a large estate at Hartfield in East Sussex. Marjorie’s national fame resulted in photographers producing postcards of her grave. There are three known examples of these being produced in the 1920s and 1930s. 

St. James Churchyard, Ashurst; Margaret’s grave at back left

Margaret Fairless Barber's grave, 1920s

Margaret Fairless Barber's grave with the inscription missing, 2025. The church has this, and hopefully it will be replaced at some point

Bowler's delivery van which carried Margaret Barber’s body to St. James's Church

The villages around Shermanbury became known as ‘The Roadmender Country,’ and other books were written about the area, including The Roadmender Country by Lorma Leigh, first published in 1922. Henfield Museum has some original letters addressed to the Bowler family written by the author, and Mary Dowson, together with photographs which appear in this article. These were donated to the museum in 2010 by Mrs Doe from Croydon, who had connections with the Bowler family.

So what happened to the people who featured in Margaret Fairless Dowson’s life? Joseph Emerson Dowson died at Hartfield in 1940 aged 95 years. His wife Mary Emily died at Hartfield in 1941 aged 93 years. The couple’s two children never married: Maud Hamilton Dowson died at Tunbridge Wells, Kent in 1957 aged 83 years, and her sister Elinor Mary, also at Tunbridge Wells in 1976 aged 98 years. Margaret’s sister Agnes Marion Haggard died in a nursing home at Torquay, Devon, in 1960 aged 100 years, and her husband Lt. John George Haggard in Malaga, Spain in 1908 aged 58 years whilst in the Consular Service.

Regarding the Bowler family; they fell on hard times, and gave up the brewery at Mockbridge in c. 1916, and moved to 3, Croft Villas, Church Street, Henfield. Frank became a gardener, and son Percy was a rent collector. By 1929 the family had moved to a cottage called Arcleven at the northern end of Henfield High Street. It was here that Charlotte (Frank’s wife) died in 1932 aged 67 years, and Frank in 1944 aged 82 years. Percy was now doing upholstery work, re-caning chairs, and gardening, and Marjorie Annie worked at the Violet Nursery on Henfield Common. There was also a handicapped woman living with them as a lodger. Percy died in 1966 at the age of 70 years, and Marjorie Annie in 1979 aged 78 years. The last few years of her life being spent in Upper Mead Nursing Home, in Upper Station Road, Henfield.

The Bowler family at Mockbridge c. 1906. Frank and Charlotte are on the bank, and children Frank, Percy, and Marjorie in the boat on the River Adur. Image: Henfield Museum

Alan Barwick
Curator Henfield Museum, 2026