John Quiller Rowett


John Quiller Rowett was a British businessman, philanthropist, and co-founder of the Rowett Research Institute.

Shackleton

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, during which Shackleton died.. Rowett Island is named after him. After Shackleton's death, Rowett acquiring the, in which Shackleton had made his famed 1916 open-boat voyage from Elephant Island to South Georgia, and presenting it to Dulwich College.
A mountain on Gough Island, a remote volcanic island of the Tristan da Cunha group in the South Atlantic, is named to honour him. After Shackleton's death in South Georgia, the expedition visited Gough Island in the tiny , with parties going ashore from 28 May 1922 for a few days. When the expedition climbed and named Mount Rowett it was thought to be the highest point on the island, at Thirty years later, Edinburgh 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 at age 48.