John Quiller Rowett

John Quiller Rowett (1876 – 1 October 1924) was a British businessman, philanthropist, and co-founder of the Rowett Research Institute.^[1][2]

In 1920, while facing potential qualms of conscience over the large profits he had made during the war, Rowett was introduced to John Boyd Orr. Boyd Orr, who was returning from service in the war, required additional funding for the creation of an institute for research into animal nutrition. Rowett agreed to provide £10,000 for the first year, £10,000 for the second year, and gave an additional £2,000 for the purchase of a farm. By September 1922 the buildings were nearly completed, and the renamed Rowett Research Institute was opened shortly thereafter by Queen Mary.^[3]

A schoolfriend of Sir Ernest Shackleton at Dulwich College, Rowett was the sole financial backer for Shackleton's final Antarctic venture, the Shackleton–Rowett Expedition of 1921–1922, on the adapted sealer Quest.^[2] Rowett Island is named after him. In 1920, Rowett promised a cornerstone amount towards the new expedition. At this time, Shackleton gave Rowett the James Caird, in which Shackleton had made his famed 1916 open-boat voyage from Elephant Island to South Georgia. In late May 1921, 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.^[4]

A mountain on Gough Island, a remote volcanic island of the Tristan da Cunha 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) Quest, 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 836 metres (2,743 ft) Thirty years later Edinburgh Peak, at 910 metres (2,990 ft), was found to be the highest point by the Gough Island Scientific Survey.

On 1 October 1924, believing his business affairs to be on a downturn, Rowett killed himself aged 48.^[5] He died at 9 Hyde Park Terrace, London, leaving an estate valued for probate at £48,533.^[6]

• Chojecki, Jan (2022). The Quest Chronicle - The Story of the Shackleton-Rowett Expedition. Goldcrest. ISBN 9781913719722
• Huntford, Roland (1985). Shackleton. London: Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN 0-340-25007-0.
• Kay, H. D. (1972). "John Boyd Orr. Baron Boyd Orr of Brechin
• "About the Institute". University of Aberdeen. Retrieved 20 February 2013.
• "The Agricultural Association, the Development Fund, and the Origins of the Rowett Research Institute" (PDF). www.bahs.org.uk. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 5 November 2008.
• The Tristan da Cunha Association Newsletter no. 53, August 2013