Thomas Henry Bowyer-Bower (1862 – 1886)
The Victorian Natural History Expeditions of
The Gentlemen Collectors
An Australian Victorian Natural History Expedition in 1886 ends in Tragedy for Thomas Henry Bowyer-Bower and Walter Burton Victorian Naturalist
Thomas Henry Bowyer-Bower. Gentlemen Collector. Accompanied on a Victorian Natural History expedition to Australia by Walter Burton Victorian Naturalist 1866
Thomas Henry Bowyer-Bower was born in Brighton in 1862. A Victorian “Gentlemen Collector”, he was associated with the high-profile Naturalist and Taxidermist, Walter Burton FZS of Wardour St, London. Walter Burton FZS was the youngest son of Victorian Naturalist & Taxidermist, Henry J Burton.
The young Thomas Henry Bowyer-Bower undertook two expeditions within Australia to collect birds, the first part to Cairns 1884-85 and the second part in 1886 to North-West Australia.
The Adventures and the Perils of Victorian Natural History Expeditions
The Adventures and The Perils of Victorian Natural History Expeditions
Victorian scientific expeditions in the early and mid-Victorian period were high-risk, costly and perilous adventures.
There were big risks of disease. Explorers were vulnerable to malaria, dysentery, cholera, and yellow fever. Many expeditions lost large numbers of men to tropical diseases.
Shipwrecks were also common, since long voyages exposed ships to storms with fierce winds, huge waves and icebergs.
Explorers were often faced with hostile environments once they arrived, including unfamiliar climates, dangerous wildlife, and sometimes conflict with local populations.
People taking expeditions had limited communication with Europe and if supplies ran out, then resupply was uncertain.
Despite these dangers, the Victorian era was a golden age of exploration, driven by curiosity, empire-building, and scientific ambition.
A trip from England to northern Australia could take up to four months on a “clipper” ship (faster than a typical sailing ship of earlier in the century), and cost anywhere from £15 for steerage to £100+ for cabin class for ordinary passengers.
In today’s money £100 is about the same as £10,500 so the family of Thomas Henry Bowyer-Bower were obviously wealthy enough to have been able to pay for two trips to Australia plus pay the fare and sustenance for an accompanying Naturalist, plus all the costs for camps at the destination, all the working support staff and expenses for months at a time at the overseas destination.
In another comparison, tickets to Australia in the Victorian era cost three times more than a transatlantic trip to New York.
The Disastrous 1886 Victorian Natural History Expedition to Australia of Thomas Henry Bowyer-Bower
IMAGE courtesy of City of Sydney Archive & History Resources
The disastrous 1886 Victorian Natural History Expedition to Australia of Thomas Henry Bowyer-Bower
In 1886 Thomas Bowyer-Bower set sail again for Australia. This time, he was accompanied by the high-profile Naturalist and Taxidermist, Walter Burton of Wardour Street, London.
The expedition proved to be disastrous. After collecting a large number of birds from the Fitzroy River both the camp and the birds were destroyed by a fire.
Just when they thought it couldn’t get any worse, the young Thomas Henry Bowyer-Bower contracted typhoid fever and on 22 December 1886 he died in Darwin, Australia aged just 24 years.
His body was sent back to England from Australia on a ship accompanied by his advisor, Walter Burton Victorian Naturalist who surely had been very lucky not to have caught the typhoid fever himself, since it is highly contagious.
The body was placed in a lead coffin and was labelled “Natural History Specimens. Glass – Handle with Care” after being prepared by a local undertaker and certified by the Sydney district “Inspector of Nuisances” (!).
The British Museum Collection
His death was included as an announcement in the scientific magazine, “The Ibis” edited by its founder, and Secretary of the Zoological Society, Philip Lutley Sclater. the extract of which can be seen within the article on this site about the naturalist, Walter Burton.
Many of the of bird skins that had survived from his collection were later presented by his father, Captain T. Bowyer-Bower, to the British Museum in 1887 and proved a very valuable acquisition. (Cf. Ibis, 1887, p. 479.)
The Wallace Online Collection holds details of the birds donated in a Manuscript Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum dated 1896 by R. Bowdler Sharpe
Thomas Henry Bowyer-Bower 1862 – 1886 is buried in Brompton Cemetery, England where later his father, Captain T. Bowyer-Bower was laid to rest with him.
The record of this Victorian Natural History expedition to Australia and the tragic death of Bowyer-Bower is also written about by Walter Burton himself in the 1891 periodical entitled “The Hummingbird” dated April 1st 1891 published by the high profile London and Paris based Naturalist and Dealer, Adolphe Boucard.
In this extract from The Hummingbird Vol 1 we see Walter Burton acknowledging the tragedy of the expedition.
Walter’s voice is still clear today, over 130 years later. Notice that the spelling of Bowyer-Bower is written by Walter Burton as “Bourger-Bower” and perhaps this surname was deliberately anglicised by the family in later years.
Diary of the expedition of Thomas H. Bowyer-Bower and Walter Burton F.Z.S. Northern Australia 1886
Manuscript notes on birds collected in north and north-western Australia in 1886 (136p)(Z 89 oB)
Manuscript notes courtesy of National Library of Australia, Zoology Library
There is a manuscript, written by Thomas Henry Bowyer-Bower himself and it’s a diary of the expedition in 1886 to the north of Australia. It begins in May 1886 and follows the activities of Bowyer-Bower and Burton as they go out on shooting missions and visit various islands within the Torres Straits between Northern Australia and Papua New Guinea.
The handwriting of Bowyer-Bower is quite hard to read and so the details are unclear and difficult to decipher, but he is describing the birds they find, their characteristics and who shot them. It’s clear that Burton had a huge role to play as a leading naturalist, sharing his expertise, skillfully shooting the birds they wish to take as examples, with preservation in mind, no doubt.
The typical bird populations of this geographical area included Cassowary, Emu, Ducks, Geese and Waterfowl, Pheasants, Turkeys and Grebes, Cuckoos and Nightjars, Cranes, Avocets and Oystercatchers, Storks and Gannets. It would have been an assault of the senses for the explorers to have seen these prolific and exotic birds in their natural habitats.
Suddenly, the diary stops at November 11th 1886 and there are no further recorded entries.
A tragedy unfolds Nov-Dec 1886
The abrupt end to the diary is for two reasons that we know of. The camp was burned to the ground and all of the carefully collected bird skins perished, and we know that Bowyer-Bower died the following month from Typhoid Fever.
We know that Walter Burton accompanied Bowyer-Bower and his lead coffin on the ship back to England.
I wonder if Walter realised that the diary had been left behind? Imagine how sad Walter would have been, sailing back on the long journey to England with hardly anything to show from the monumental expedition – except a body in a coffin. I imagine how worried he would have been at the prospect of himself also catching Typhoid Fever.
If only Walter had known about his own terrible and tragic end still to come in 1913, He might have preferred the Typhoid Fever……
This article is part of the Before the Glass section. Explore more research here →
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