Owen was born in
Chepstow in
Monmouthshire, south
Wales. At the time his father, William Owen, later chief engineer of the
Great Western Railway, was building the
South Wales Railway under
Isambard Kingdom Brunel, from whom Isambard Owen received his unusual middle name. He was educated at
The King's School, Gloucester,
Rossall School and
Downing College, Cambridge, where he read
Natural Sciences. After graduating, he studied medicine at
St George's Hospital, then returned to Cambridge to take his final
MB and to study for his
MD, which he received in 1882. He became a lecturer, author, and curator of the museum at St George's Hospital, and promoted the idea of establishing a new medical university in London. He was active in Welsh cultural life in London. He was involved in reviving the
Cymmrodorion Society, and in promoting the use of the
Welsh language in schools within Wales; and was a leading member of the
Society for the Utilisation of the Welsh Language. receiving the accolade from King
Edward VII at
Buckingham Palace on 24 October that year. He was Principal of
Armstrong College, Newcastle (then a college of Durham University) 1904–09 and Vice-Chancellor of the
University of Bristol 1909–21. In 1916 he was a factor in the "
Hodgson Affair" when a leading academic was dismissed. Owen was executor of the will of Prince
Louis Lucien Bonaparte (1813–1891) and may have acted as medical advisor to the Prince, who lived in London and was a philologist with an interest in the Celtic languages including Welsh. He married Ethel Holland-Thomas in 1905, and had two daughters. He died in Paris in 1927, and was buried at
Bangor. ==References==