Birdie Bowers: Captain Scott's Marvel
Anne Strathie, MA 1970
Henry 'Birdie' Bowers realised his life's ambition when, at the age of 26, he joined Captain Scott's Terra Nova expedition to the Antarctic. He had been born in Greenock, in 1883, to an entrepreneurial Scottish seafaring father and a Gloucestershire-born missionary teacher mother from whom he had inherited a love of travel and adventure.
As a young seaman he circled the globe five times (four under sail), visiting Australia, the USA and South America; as an officer in the Royal Indian Marine he worked in India, followed in his father's footsteps up the Irrawaddy and chased gun-runners in the Persian Gulf. In rare leisure time he wrote long letters home, sought out wild-life, cycled all over Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and followed reports of Scott's and Shackleton's first Antarctic expeditions.
His sheer persistence won him a place (out of 8,000 candidates) on Scott's Terra Nova expedition. He soon proved his worth: a stocky 5ft 4ins tall, he was a bundle of energy, knowledgeable, indefatigable and the ultimate team player. In Scott's words, he was 'a marvel'.
This new biography draws on Bowers' letters and journals and includes previously unpublished material; these combine to shed new light on his life and character and tell the full story of the hardy young naval officer who could always be relied on to lift his companions' spirits.
ISBN: 9780752494449