Thomas Hubert Hardinge Vowles was born in Barnsley, Yorkshire, England on 7 December 1872 and was articled to John A. Nuttall in Blackpool, Lancashire until 1893. He then worked as an assistant to Edward Salomons (1829-1906) and Alfred Steinthal(1859-1928) of Salomons & Steinthal in Manchester in 1893-94; Thomas Taylor (c,1858-1943) in Oldham, Lancashire from 1895 to 1898. Vowles qualified as an architect in 1899 and was elected an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects (ARIBA) later that year.
Between 1900 and 1914 he was in partnership with Arthur Joseph Singleton Shaw (1871-1943) in Burnley, Lancashire. Vowles and Shaw were also partners in the architectural practice Sproat, Shaw, Vowles & Clayton which submitted an entry in a competition to design Lambeth Municipal Buildings in 1905. It may not have been a formal partnership and was possibly formed specifically for this competition. It may not have designed anything else. Their entry is illustrated in British Competitions in Architecture volume 1, no. 1, January 1905 (pp. 38, 39)
Vowles died in Bulmer, Yorkshire on 21 May 1946
Directory of British Architects 1834-1914. Compiled by Antonia Brodie, et al. Volume 2: L-Z. London; New York: British Architectural Library, Royal Institute of British Architects/Continuum, 2001
‘Obituary’. RIBA Journal vol. 53, 1946, p. 467