John Quiller Rowett

Who was John Quiller Rowett?

John Quiller Rowett was a British businessman and philanthropist. He made a fortune in the wines and spirits industry as Chairman and Managing Director of Rowett, Leakey and Co., and a director of other companies.

He had a desire to do more than make money and in the years after World War I he was a notable contributor to public and charitable causes. 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 1921–22, during which Shackleton died.

After Shackleton's death, Rowett was instrumental in acquiring the whaleboat James Caird, in which Shackleton had made his famed 1916 open-boat voyage from Elephant Island to South Georgia, and presenting it to Dulwich College. He was a co-founder of the Rowett Research Institute, an animal nutrition research laboratory now part of the University of Aberdeen, and was also a benefactor to hospital charities.

On 1 October 1924, believing his business affairs to be on a downturn, Rowett took his own life.