James Henry Bowker
1822–1900
South African farmer, soldier, civil servant, and naturalist. Brother of Mary Elizabeth Barber. Inspector in the Frontier Armed and Mounted Police, Cape Colony, 1855; commandant, 1858; commanding officer, 1870. High commissioner’s agent in Basutoland, 1868. Chief commissioner at the diamond fields of Griqualand West, after leading the expedition that secured their annexation to the Cape Colony in 1871. Major contributor of specimens to the South African museum’s collection of Lepidoptera. Collaborated with Roland Trimen to publish South-African butterflies: a monograph of the extra-tropical species (Trimen 1887–9).
Sources
DSAB
Trimen 1887–9.
Bibliography
DSAB: Dictionary of South African biography. Edited by W. J. de Kock et al. 4 vols. Pretoria and Cape Town: Nasionale Boekhandel Beperk [and others]. 1968–81.
Trimen, Roland. 1887–9. South-African butterflies: a monograph of the extra-tropical species. With the assistance of James Henry Bowker. 3 vols. London: Trübner.
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