Thomas William Cowan Thomas William Cowan was born on14th January 1840, to a Scottish father, John, and English mother, Mary Anne, in Lenningrad, Russia, where John was a Civil Engineer working for the Russian Government. Thomas had a younger brother, Demetrius. At the outbreak of the Crimea war in 1854, the family returned to England, where his John ran Kent Ironworks at Greenwich (1), making air and steam hammers, small boat engines, steam carriages and fire engines, etc. It was common for men well placed in the engineering industry in the mid eighteen hundreds to pay another company to take their sons as apprentices. The Cowans were no exception, Thomas being apprenticed to Rennie and Company, a very large civil and mechanical engineering business based in the London area. He was registered as an 'occasional' student at the London School ofMines studying Chemistry and Applied Mechanics in 1858/9, and it is here that he first became interested in the natural world, the school having been developed from the Museum of Economic Geology. He did not gain a qualification from the School, but might well have listened to some of the great men of science who lectured there on occasions, such as Sir Richard Owen, Charles Darwin, T. H. Huxley etc. He was friendly with a group of young like minded young men, some of whom were to progress to become major figures in the Bri6sh engineering establishment, for example Alfred Yarrow the shipbuilder, who later became Sir Alfred Yarrow. In 1861, John retired and Thomas took over the iron works. In 1862 he exhibited at the Great Exhibition in London, but he was not successful in gaining any awards. However, it was probably whilst at the exhibition that he first met Fanny Matilda Michell, daughter of Henry Michell, a successful and wealthy businessman from Horsham, Sussex (2). They were married in May 1864, and subsequently had five surviving children; Alexander Henry, (b. 1869), Helena Maria (1871), Edith Constance, (1872), Herbert Francis, (1874), and Percy John, (1876). In 1851/2, Rev. Lorenzo Lorraine Langstroth, of Philadelphia and graduate of Yale, devised a bee-hive and method of management to accompany it that utilised the principle of'bee-space'(3). Whilst Langstroth's book was imported into Britain, there was no mechanism by magazine or organisation, to convey the message to the ordinary cottage beekeeper, who kept his bees in skeps (4), using a very inhumane method ofmanagement. Most of these 'cottagers' were unable to read and did not have the money to purchase the new style hives, and the British middle and upper classes were reluctant to become involved either financially or educationally. The firsts steps towards changing the status quo in British beekeeping came in 1873 when Charles Nash Abbott launched the first dedicated bee journal in Britain. This resulted, 18 months later, in the formation ofthe British Beekeepers Association (BBKA), of which Thomas was a committee member and later (1878), the elected Chairman. Thomas had started keeping bees in 1864, trying different types of bee-hive and experimenting with various forms of management. Ten years later, Henry Michell died, bequeathing a considerable annual income to Fanny and a not insignificant sum to Thomas. By 1878 the Cowans had purchased 40 acres of land near Horsham and built a very large house upon it, Thomas then being able to cease his career in engineering and indulge himself in his life long passion for natural history, specifically the Honey-bee. He kept his bees above the stables here, and, in typical Victorian manner had an extensive personal natural history museum. The early years of the BBKA were very difficult, low membership, financial difficulties, no clear mission, much disharmony amongst the members, and general , OCR Text: Thomas William Cowan Thomas William Cowan was born on14th January 1840, to a Scottish father, John, and English mother, Mary Anne, in Lenningrad, Russia, where John was a Civil Engineer working for the Russian Government. Thomas had a younger brother, Demetrius. At the outbreak of the Crimea war in 1854, the family returned to England, where his John ran Kent Ironworks at Greenwich (1), making air and steam hammers, small boat engines, steam carriages and fire engines, etc. It was common for men well placed in the engineering industry in the mid eighteen hundreds to pay another company to take their sons as apprentices. The Cowans were no exception, Thomas being apprenticed to Rennie and Company, a very large civil and mechanical engineering business based in the London area. He was registered as an 'occasional' student at the London School ofMines studying Chemistry and Applied Mechanics in 1858/9, and it is here that he first became interested in the natural world, the school having been developed from the Museum of Economic Geology. He did not gain a qualification from the School, but might well have listened to some of the great men of science who lectured there on occasions, such as Sir Richard Owen, Charles Darwin, T. H. Huxley etc. He was friendly with a group of young like minded young men, some of whom were to progress to become major figures in the Bri6sh engineering establishment, for example Alfred Yarrow the shipbuilder, who later became Sir Alfred Yarrow. In 1861, John retired and Thomas took over the iron works. In 1862 he exhibited at the Great Exhibition in London, but he was not successful in gaining any awards. However, it was probably whilst at the exhibition that he first met Fanny Matilda Michell, daughter of Henry Michell, a successful and wealthy businessman from Horsham, Sussex (2). They were married in May 1864, and subsequently had five surviving children; Alexander Henry, (b. 1869), Helena Maria (1871), Edith Constance, (1872), Herbert Francis, (1874), and Percy John, (1876). In 1851/2, Rev. Lorenzo Lorraine Langstroth, of Philadelphia and graduate of Yale, devised a bee-hive and method of management to accompany it that utilised the principle of'bee-space'(3). Whilst Langstroth's book was imported into Britain, there was no mechanism by magazine or organisation, to convey the message to the ordinary cottage beekeeper, who kept his bees in skeps (4), using a very inhumane method ofmanagement. Most of these 'cottagers' were unable to read and did not have the money to purchase the new style hives, and the British middle and upper classes were reluctant to become involved either financially or educationally. The firsts steps towards changing the status quo in British beekeeping came in 1873 when Charles Nash Abbott launched the first dedicated bee journal in Britain. This resulted, 18 months later, in the formation ofthe British Beekeepers Association (BBKA), of which Thomas was a committee member and later (1878), the elected Chairman. Thomas had started keeping bees in 1864, trying different types of bee-hive and experimenting with various forms of management. Ten years later, Henry Michell died, bequeathing a considerable annual income to Fanny and a not insignificant sum to Thomas. By 1878 the Cowans had purchased 40 acres of land near Horsham and built a very large house upon it, Thomas then being able to cease his career in engineering and indulge himself in his life long passion for natural history, specifically the Honey-bee. He kept his bees above the stables here, and, in typical Victorian manner had an extensive personal natural history museum. The early years of the BBKA were very difficult, low membership, financial difficulties, no clear mission, much disharmony amongst the members, and general , Heritage Society of Pacific Grove,Historical Collections,Names of People about town,C through D File Names,Cowan, Thomas,THOMAS WILLIAM COWAN_018.pdf,THOMAS WILLIAM COWAN_018.pdf 1 Page 1, Tags: THOMAS WILLIAM COWAN_018.PDF, THOMAS WILLIAM COWAN_018.pdf 1 Page 1