John Quiller Rowett was a British businessman who made a fortune in the spirits

Alcohol

In chemistry, an alcohol is an organic compound in which the hydroxy functional group is bound to a carbon atom. In particular, this carbon center should be saturated, having single bonds to three other atoms....

 industry. He had a desire, however, to do more than make money, and in the years after the First World War he was a notable contributor to public and charitable causes. A school-friend of Sir Ernest Shackleton at Dulwich College

Dulwich College

Dulwich College is an independent school for boys in Dulwich, southeast London, England. The college was founded in 1619 by Edward Alleyn, a successful Elizabethan actor, with the original purpose of educating 12 poor scholars as the foundation of "God's Gift". It currently has about 1,600 boys,...

, Rowett was the sole financial backer for Shackleton's final Antarctic

Antarctic

The Antarctic is the region around the Earth's South Pole, opposite the Arctic region around the North Pole. The Antarctic comprises the continent of Antarctica and the ice shelves, waters and island territories in the Southern Ocean situated south of the Antarctic Convergence...

 venture, the Shackleton-Rowett Expedition

Shackleton-Rowett Expedition

The Shackleton–Rowett Expedition was Sir Ernest Shackleton's last Antarctic project, and the final episode in the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. The venture, financed by businessman John Quiller Rowett, is sometimes referred to as the Quest Expedition after its ship Quest, a converted...

 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, and presenting it to Dulwich College. He was also a co-founder of the Rowett Research Institute

Rowett Research Institute

The Rowett Research Institute is a research centre for studies into food and nutrition located in Aberdeen, Scotland.-History:The institute was founded in 1913 when the University of Aberdeen and the North of Scotland College of Agriculture agreed that an "Institute for Research into Animal...

, an animal nutrition research laboratory now part of the University of Aberdeen

University of Aberdeen

The University of Aberdeen, an ancient university founded in 1495, in Aberdeen, Scotland, is a British university. It is the third oldest university in Scotland, and the fifth oldest in the United Kingdom and wider English-speaking world...

, and was also a benefactor to hospital charities. In 1924, believing his business affairs to be on a downturn, Rowett took his own life.

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