Henry Robertson Bowers (29 July 1883 – ) 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.
Early life
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 , preventing gun-running in the Persian Gulf. by Sylvester McCoy in the 1985 television serial The Last Place on Earth, and by Lee Ingleby in the 2007 television docudrama The Worst Journey in the World.
See also
- List of solved missing person cases (pre-1950)