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Henry Robertson Bowers
Henry Robertson Bowers (29 July 1883 – c. 29 March 1912) was one of Robert Falcon Scott's polar party on the ill-fated Terra Nova Expedition of 1910–1913, all of whom died during their return from the South Pole.
Bowers was born on 29 July 1883 in Greenock, Scotland. The only son and youngest of three children of Alexander Bowers, a master mariner and businessman, and Emily, née Webb. He was of Scottish descent. After his father died in Rangoon, his mother alone raised him from the age of three with his two older sisters. By January 1896, the family had moved to Streatham, in south London, and lived at 19 Pathfield Road, where Mrs Bowers was still residing in 1899. Whilst living in Streatham, Bowers attended Streatham High School for Boys in Pinfold Road in 1896–7. The building survives today as the Computer Centre behind Streatham Library, on which a plaque was placed by The Streatham Society on 29 March 2012 to commemorate the centenary of his death.
He went to sea first as a cadet in the merchant service, training on HMS Worcester and sailing around the world four times on the Loch Torridon. He then enlisted in the Royal Indian Marine Service in 1905. He was appointed sub-lieutenant, serving in Ceylon and Burma, and commanded a river gunboat on the Irrawaddy. He later served on HMS Fox, preventing gun-running in the Persian Gulf.
Bowers joined Robert Falcon Scott's Terra Nova expedition in 1910, after having read the accounts of Scott's earlier Discovery expedition, and of Ernest Shackleton's expedition in Nimrod. He had no previous polar experience but was recommended to Scott by the ex-President of the Royal Geographical Society, Sir Clements Markham, who had been the main organizer of Scott's earlier Discovery expedition. Markham had met Bowers aboard HMS Worcester and had been so impressed with him that Scott invited Bowers to join the expedition without a prior interview. After Bowers fell 19 feet into a hold when loading the ship (someone had carelessly left the cover off), Scott was less impressed by the short, stout young man. "Well, we're landed with him now, and must make the best of it,"[quote needs citation] said Scott, but he soon changed his mind.
Originally appointed as a junior officer of the ship's party in charge of expedition stores, Bowers quickly distinguished himself as an extremely hard-working, highly skilled organiser. By the time the Terra Nova left New Zealand, Scott had promoted him to be a member of the shore party, in charge of landing, stores, navigation and the arrangement of sledging rations, a role in which his extraordinary powers of memory served Scott well. He would pull up a chair to his bunk, stand on it, and use the bunk as a standing desk to work out some of these logistics while his bunkmate slept. During this time, Cherry-Garrard remembers:
Bowers' middle watch especially became famous for the way in which he put the ship at the ice, and more than once Scott was alarmed by the great shock and collisions which were the result: I have seen him hurry up from his cabin to put a stop to it! But Bowers never hurt the ship, and she gallantly responded to the calls made upon her.
Six months after arriving in Antarctica, Bowers made the winter journey to the emperor penguin breeding grounds at Cape Crozier in July 1911 with Edward Adrian Wilson and Apsley Cherry-Garrard. The aim of the party was to secure an unhatched egg for scientific study. In almost total darkness and with temperatures ranging from −40 to −70 °F (−40 to −57 °C), they man-hauled their sledge 60 miles (97 km) from Scott's base at Cape Evans to the far side of Ross Island. Frozen and exhausted, they reached their goal, only to be pinned down by a blizzard. Their tent was ripped away and carried off by the wind, leaving the men in their sleeping bags under a thickening drift of snow. When the winds subsided, by great fortune they found their tent lodged about half a mile away in rocks. Having successfully collected three eggs and desperately exhausted, they eventually arrived back at Cape Evans on 1 August 1911, five weeks after setting off. Cherry-Garrard later referred to this trip as The Worst Journey in the World, which became the title of his book published in 1922 recounting the fate of the 1908–1912 expedition.
On 1 November 1911, the long trek to the South Pole began. Scott had not originally planned to include Bowers in his polar party. He had been a member of the sledge team led by Scott's second-in-command, Lieutenant Edward Evans and the last support party to accompany Scott and his team southward, but on 4 January 1912, just as Evans party was about to turn back, Bowers was assigned to the polar party. Some have argued that this seems to have been an impulsive decision by Scott; however, others, such as Antarctic explorer Ranulph Fiennes, have indicated that this was a logical decision – particularly when one intended to increase the speed of a polar land-crossing, in an effort to reduce the consumption of resources.
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Henry Robertson Bowers
Henry Robertson Bowers (29 July 1883 – c. 29 March 1912) was one of Robert Falcon Scott's polar party on the ill-fated Terra Nova Expedition of 1910–1913, all of whom died during their return from the South Pole.
Bowers was born on 29 July 1883 in Greenock, Scotland. The only son and youngest of three children of Alexander Bowers, a master mariner and businessman, and Emily, née Webb. He was of Scottish descent. After his father died in Rangoon, his mother alone raised him from the age of three with his two older sisters. By January 1896, the family had moved to Streatham, in south London, and lived at 19 Pathfield Road, where Mrs Bowers was still residing in 1899. Whilst living in Streatham, Bowers attended Streatham High School for Boys in Pinfold Road in 1896–7. The building survives today as the Computer Centre behind Streatham Library, on which a plaque was placed by The Streatham Society on 29 March 2012 to commemorate the centenary of his death.
He went to sea first as a cadet in the merchant service, training on HMS Worcester and sailing around the world four times on the Loch Torridon. He then enlisted in the Royal Indian Marine Service in 1905. He was appointed sub-lieutenant, serving in Ceylon and Burma, and commanded a river gunboat on the Irrawaddy. He later served on HMS Fox, preventing gun-running in the Persian Gulf.
Bowers joined Robert Falcon Scott's Terra Nova expedition in 1910, after having read the accounts of Scott's earlier Discovery expedition, and of Ernest Shackleton's expedition in Nimrod. He had no previous polar experience but was recommended to Scott by the ex-President of the Royal Geographical Society, Sir Clements Markham, who had been the main organizer of Scott's earlier Discovery expedition. Markham had met Bowers aboard HMS Worcester and had been so impressed with him that Scott invited Bowers to join the expedition without a prior interview. After Bowers fell 19 feet into a hold when loading the ship (someone had carelessly left the cover off), Scott was less impressed by the short, stout young man. "Well, we're landed with him now, and must make the best of it,"[quote needs citation] said Scott, but he soon changed his mind.
Originally appointed as a junior officer of the ship's party in charge of expedition stores, Bowers quickly distinguished himself as an extremely hard-working, highly skilled organiser. By the time the Terra Nova left New Zealand, Scott had promoted him to be a member of the shore party, in charge of landing, stores, navigation and the arrangement of sledging rations, a role in which his extraordinary powers of memory served Scott well. He would pull up a chair to his bunk, stand on it, and use the bunk as a standing desk to work out some of these logistics while his bunkmate slept. During this time, Cherry-Garrard remembers:
Bowers' middle watch especially became famous for the way in which he put the ship at the ice, and more than once Scott was alarmed by the great shock and collisions which were the result: I have seen him hurry up from his cabin to put a stop to it! But Bowers never hurt the ship, and she gallantly responded to the calls made upon her.
Six months after arriving in Antarctica, Bowers made the winter journey to the emperor penguin breeding grounds at Cape Crozier in July 1911 with Edward Adrian Wilson and Apsley Cherry-Garrard. The aim of the party was to secure an unhatched egg for scientific study. In almost total darkness and with temperatures ranging from −40 to −70 °F (−40 to −57 °C), they man-hauled their sledge 60 miles (97 km) from Scott's base at Cape Evans to the far side of Ross Island. Frozen and exhausted, they reached their goal, only to be pinned down by a blizzard. Their tent was ripped away and carried off by the wind, leaving the men in their sleeping bags under a thickening drift of snow. When the winds subsided, by great fortune they found their tent lodged about half a mile away in rocks. Having successfully collected three eggs and desperately exhausted, they eventually arrived back at Cape Evans on 1 August 1911, five weeks after setting off. Cherry-Garrard later referred to this trip as The Worst Journey in the World, which became the title of his book published in 1922 recounting the fate of the 1908–1912 expedition.
On 1 November 1911, the long trek to the South Pole began. Scott had not originally planned to include Bowers in his polar party. He had been a member of the sledge team led by Scott's second-in-command, Lieutenant Edward Evans and the last support party to accompany Scott and his team southward, but on 4 January 1912, just as Evans party was about to turn back, Bowers was assigned to the polar party. Some have argued that this seems to have been an impulsive decision by Scott; however, others, such as Antarctic explorer Ranulph Fiennes, have indicated that this was a logical decision – particularly when one intended to increase the speed of a polar land-crossing, in an effort to reduce the consumption of resources.
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