John Quiller Rowett (1876 – 1 October 1924) was a British businessman, philanthropist, and co-founder of the

Rowett Research Institute The Rowett Institute is a research centre for studies into Food science, food and nutrition, located in Aberdeen, Scotland. History The institute was founded in 1913 when the University of Aberdeen and the Scottish Agricultural College, Nort ...

Shackleton

A schoolfriend of Sir

Ernest Shackleton Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton (15 February 1874 – 5 January 1922) was an Anglo-Irish Antarctic explorer who led three British expeditions to the Antarctic. He was one of the principal figures of the period known as the Heroic Age of ...

Dulwich College Dulwich College is a 2–19 independent, day and boarding school for boys in Dulwich, London, England. As a public school, it began as the College of God's Gift, founded in 1619 by Elizabethan actor Edward Alleyn, with the original purpose of ...

, Rowett was the sole financial backer for Shackleton's final

Antarctic The Antarctic ( or , American English also or ; commonly ) is a polar region around Earth's South Pole, opposite the Arctic region around the North Pole. The Antarctic comprises the continent of Antarctica, the Kerguelen Plateau and other ...

venture, the

Shackleton–Rowett expedition The Shackleton–Rowett Expedition (1921–22) was Sir Ernest Shackleton's last Antarctic project, and the final episode in the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. The venture, financed by John Quiller Rowett, is sometimes referred to as the ' ...

of 1921–1922, on the adapted sealer ''Quest''.Chojecki, Jan (2022). ''The Quest Chronicle - The Story of the Shackleton-Rowett Expedition''. Goldcrest. ISBN 9781913719722 Rowett Island is named after him. In 1920, Rowett promised a cornerstone amount towards the new expedition. At this time, Shackleton gave Rowett the , in which Shackleton had made his famed 1916 open-boat voyage from

Elephant Island Elephant Island is an ice-covered, mountainous island off the coast of Antarctica in the outer reaches of the South Shetland Islands, in the Southern Ocean. The island is situated north-northeast of the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, west-so ...

to South Georgia. In late May 1922, after Shackleton had failed to raise the remaining funds elsewhere, Rowett agreed to finance the entire Shackleton-Rowett Expedition. After Shackleton's death, Rowett presented the ''James Caird'' to Dulwich College. A mountain on

Gough Island upright=1.3, Map of Gough island Gough Island ( ), also known historically as Gonçalo Álvares, is a rugged volcanic island in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is a dependency of Tristan da Cunha and part of the British overseas territory of Sain ...

, a remote volcanic island of the

Tristan da Cunha Tristan da Cunha (), colloquially Tristan, is a remote group of volcanic islands in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is the most remote inhabited archipelago in the world, lying approximately from Cape Town in South Africa, from Saint Helena ...

group in the South Atlantic, is named in his honour. After Shackleton's death in South Georgia, the expedition visited Gough Island in the tiny (125-ton) , with parties going ashore from 28 May 1922 for a few days. When the expedition climbed and named Mount Rowett (made up of four peaks) it was thought to be the highest point on the island, at Thirty years later

Edinburgh Peak Edinburgh Peak is the highest mountain in Gough Island, South Atlantic Ocean. Geography This high peak is the highest point of a ridge that runs in a roughly NW/SE direction in the central area of Gough Island. Slightly lower Expedition Peak ...

, at , was found to be the highest point by the Gough Island Scientific Survey.

Death

On 1 October 1924, believing his business affairs to be on a downturn, Rowett took his own life aged 48. He died at 9

Hyde Park Terrace Hyde Park Gardens, also known as Hyde Park Terrace consists of two roads running adjacent to the north western corner of Hyde Park, Westminster, Greater London. Number 1 Hyde Park Gardens runs up to Number 23 with a large private communal garde ...

, London, leaving an estate valued for probate at £48,533."ROWETT John Quiller of 9 Hyde Park-terrace Middlesex" in ''Wills and Administrations 1924 (England and Wales)'' (1925), p. 151

Notes and references

Sources

*Chojecki, Jan (2022). ''The Quest Chronicle - The Story of the Shackleton-Rowett Expedition''. Goldcrest. ISBN 9781913719722 * * * *The

Association Newsletter no. 53, August 2013 {{DEFAULTSORT:Rowett, John Quiller 1874 births 1924 deaths British philanthropists People educated at Dulwich College 1924 suicides Suicides by hanging in England Suicides in Westminster