James Henry Bowker | |
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| Born | William Henry Bowker 23 August 1825 Olive Burn farm, Port Kowie, Cape Colony |
| Died | 27 October 1900 (aged 75) |
| Known for | Lepidoptera |
Colonel James Henry Bowker (23 August 1825 – 27 October 1900), was a Cape Colony naturalist, archaeologist and soldier. He was co-author with Roland Trimen of South African Butterflies (1887–89; 3 vols.). [1]
Bowker was the ninth and youngest son of Miles Bowker (born c.1758 at Deckham's Hall, Gateshead, Durham), and Anna Maria Mitford, (born 1782 in Mitford, Northumberland, died 8 July 1868 at Tharfield), both 1820 Settlers. [2] He was born on a farm known as Olive Burn, on the Klein Monden River, north of Port Kowie. He was actually baptised as William Henry Bowker on 17 December 1825, but was known as James Henry Bowker.
Bowker participated in the frontier wars of 1846 and 1850, and in 1855 he was appointed an inspector of the Frontier Armed and Mounted Police (F.A.M.P.), later succeeding Sir Walter Currie as commandant. He also acted as High Commissioner of Basutoland. During the Seventh and Eighth Kaffir Wars he was promoted to colonel. He took part in the suppression of the Kat River Rebellion [3] and the capture of Fort Armstrong in 1846–7, for which he earned a medal and clasp. He took part in expeditions to Basutoland in 1868 and commanded a police force in the territory after its annexation. [2] He led the Frontier Armed and Mounted Police in 1870 and commanded the expedition that led to the annexation of the diamond fields of Griqualand West in 1871. He was Chief Commissioner on the diamond fields of Griqualand West until his retirement to Malvern, Durban in 1878. [2]
He was a knowledgeable naturalist and collected large numbers of butterflies which he then supplied to museums. His older sister Mary Elizabeth Bowker, who had married Frederick William Barber, was a noted botanist and entomologist as well as being a painter and author. She corresponded regularly with Joseph Hooker, William Hooker and Charles Darwin.
Bowker made many contributions to entomology, archaeology and botany over his almost 40-year long career, but his main interest was butterflies. He became an authority and the leading collector of Lepidoptera specimens of his time. He discovered 40 new species and the new genus Deloneura immaculata (named after Roland Trimen in 1868 but it is now considered extinct). [4] [2]
The South African Museum received his first collection of insects in 1860 and additional collections over the next 30 years and this continued even after his retirement. [2]
He was involved in archaeological investigation from 1867 when he sent a collection of stone artifacts from East London to Joseph Hooker. He discovered stone implements in the diamond digging at Pniel, Western Cape on the Vaal River. He also discovered artifacts near Maputo, Inhambane, Zululand and Lesotho. [2]
James Henry Bowker never married.
Fort Bowker, built around 1860 to keep the Gcaleka north of the Mbashe River, was named after him, [5] and there is still a road named after him in Maseru, the capital of Lesotho (formerly Basutoland).[ citation needed ]
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)| International | |
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Lesotho, formally the Kingdom of Lesotho, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. As an enclave of South Africa, with which it shares a 1,106 km border, it is the only sovereign enclave in the world outside of the Italian Peninsula. It is situated in the Maloti Mountains and contains the highest peak in Southern Africa. It has an area of over 30,000 km2 (11,600 sq mi) and has a population of about 2 million. Its capital and largest city is Maseru.
The history of people living in the area now known as Lesotho goes back as many as 400 years. Present Lesotho emerged as a single polity under King Moshoeshoe I in 1822. Under Moshoeshoe I, Basotho joined other clans in their struggle against the Lifaqane associated with famine and the reign of Shaka Zulu from 1818 to 1828.
Basutoland was a British Crown colony that existed from 1884 to 1966 in present-day Lesotho, bordered with the Cape Colony, Natal Colony and Orange River Colony until 1910 and completely surrounded by South Africa from 1910. Though the Basotho and their territory had been under British control starting in 1868, the Cape Colony was unpopular and unable to control the territory. As a result, Basutoland was brought under direct authority of Queen Victoria, via the High Commissioner, and run by an Executive Council presided over by a series of British Resident Commissioners.
The history of the Cape Colony from 1806 to 1870 spans the period of the history of the Cape Colony during the Cape Frontier Wars, which lasted from 1779 to 1879. The wars were fought between the European colonists and the native Xhosa who, defending their land, fought against European rule.
The First Boer War, was fought from 16 December 1880 until 23 March 1881 between the United Kingdom and Boers of the Transvaal. The war resulted in a Boer victory and eventual independence of the South African Republic. The war is also known as the First Anglo–Boer War, the Transvaal War or the Transvaal Rebellion.
Moshoeshoe I was the first king of Lesotho. He was the first son of Mokhachane, a minor chief of the Bamokoteli lineage, a branch of the Koena (crocodile) clan. In his youth, he helped his father gain power over some other smaller clans. At the age of 34 Moshoeshoe formed his own clan and became a chief. He and his followers settled at the Butha-Buthe Mountain. He became the first and longest-serving King of Lesotho in 1822.
The Griquas is a subgroup of mixed race heterogeneous former Khoe-speaking nations in South Africa with a unique origin in the early history of the Dutch Cape Colony. Under apartheid, they were given a special racial people classification under the broader category of "Coloured". They are Cape Coloureds who participated in the Great Trek, forming "Griqua States".
Griqualand West is an area of central South Africa with an area of 40,000 km2 that now forms part of the Northern Cape Province. It was inhabited by the Griqua people – a semi-nomadic, Afrikaans-speaking nation of mixed-race origin, who established several states outside the expanding frontier of the Cape Colony. It was also ancestral home to the Tswana and Khoisan peoples.
Griqualand East, officially known as New Griqualand, was one of four short-lived Griqua states in Southern Africa from the early 1860s until the late 1870s and was located between the Umzimkulu and Kinira Rivers, south of the Sotho Kingdom.
The Basuto Gun War, also known as the Basutoland Rebellion, was a conflict between the Basuto and the British Cape Colony. It lasted from 13 September 1880 to 29 April 1881 and ended in a Basuto victory.
Roland Trimen FRS was a British-South African naturalist, best known for South African Butterflies (1887–89), a collaborative work with Colonel James Henry Bowker. He was among the first entomologists to investigate mimicry and polymorphism in butterflies and their restriction to females. He also collaborated with Charles Darwin to study the pollination of Disa orchids.
The Cape Mounted Riflemen were South African military units.
The Cape Colonial Forces (CCF) were the official defence organisation of the Cape Colony in South Africa. Established in 1855, they were taken over by the Union of South Africa in 1910, and disbanded when the Union Defence Forces were formed in 1912.
Deloneura immaculata, the Mbashe River buff, is a possibly extinct species of butterfly in the family Lycaenidae. It is assumed to be endemic to the densely forested Mbhashe River area of the Eastern Cape, South Africa. Searches subsequent to its discovery however failed to yield any trace of it.
The South African Wars, including but also known as the Confederation Wars, were a series of wars that occurred in the southern portion of the African continent between 1879 and 1915. Ethnic, political, and social tensions between European colonial powers and indigenous Africans led to increasing hostilities, culminating in a series of wars and revolts, which had lasting repercussions on the entire region. A key factor behind the growth of these tensions was the pursuit of commerce and resources, both by countries and individuals, especially following the discoveries of diamonds in the region in 1867 and gold in 1862.
Chrysoritis felthami, the Feltham's opal, is a butterfly of the family Lycaenidae. It is found in South Africa. It was originally described by Roland Trimen under the name Zeritis felthami. This species was named in honour of Henry Louis Langley Feltham.
Mary Elizabeth Barber was a pioneering British-born amateur scientist of the nineteenth century. Without formal education, she made a name for herself in botany, ornithology and entomology. She was also an accomplished poet and painter, and illustrated her scientific contributions that were published by learned societies such as the Royal Entomological Society in London, the Royal Botanical Gardens in Kew, and the Linnean Society of London.
Ivan Mitford-Barberton (1896–1976) was a South African sculptor, writer and authority on heraldry.
Morosi was a Baphuthi chief in the wild southern part of Basutoland. He led a revolt against the Cape Colony government in 1879, in defence of his independence south of the Orange River. The British refused to help the Cape Government. However, Letsie, the paramount chief and first son of Moshoeshoe, and many of the Sotho ruling establishment, rallied to support the Cape forces, and the rebellion was put down after several months of arduous fighting. Morosi was beheaded and his body mutilated by Cape troops.
Daniel Rossouw Kannemeyer was a South African medical practitioner, naturalist, archaeologist and palaeontologist, the son of Daniel Gerhardus Kannemeyer and Johanna Susanna Rossouw He is best remembered for his contributions to palaeontology and archaeology although his collections of zoological specimens are greatly valued by the museums which acquired them.
