Biography

Robert Bowes (1835-1919), bookseller and publisher, was born at Stewarton, Ayrshire, on 22 August 1835. In July 1846 he joined his uncles Daniel Macmillan and Alexander Macmillan [see under Macmillan family] in their bookselling and publishing business at Cambridge; and a decade later he was to share with members of the university in the founding of the Cambridge Working Men's College. In 1858 Bowes was placed in charge of the new London branch of Macmillans, in Henrietta Street, Covent Garden. There he remained until 1863, when the whole of the publishing business was transferred to London under the direction of Alexander Macmillan, and Bowes moved back to take charge of the Cambridge bookshop. He was a Cambridge town councillor for nine years, an officer in the volunteers, a governor of the Perse School and of the Old Schools, and twice chairman of the free library committee, as well as an officer of the Local Lectures Association. From 1894 to 1910 he served as treasurer of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society, and in 1870 he joined F. D. Maurice, Henry Sidgwick, and others to promote the higher education of women. In 1918 the university conferred on Bowes an honorary degree of MA. He died at his home, 13 Park Terrace, Cambridge, on 9 February 1919.

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