Sydenham Bowden was born in London in January 1847 to James Bowden and Louisa Sydney Graves. As a young man he travelled to the South Seas, and for several years he owned and managed a sugar cane plantation on Urnoue in the Lau group in the Fijian Islands.
When he arrived in Melbourne in 1873, he was still only 26 years old. A notice in the Kilmore Free Press, 9 October 1873, names Sydenham Bowden, occupation “Gentleman”, of Melbourne, as a major shareholder in the newly registered Murchison and Antimony Mining Company.
It seems, however, that Bowden was a profligate who led an extravagant lifestyle (hinted at in this enigmatic studio portrait in which Bowden comes across as the epitome of colonial arrogance), for barely a year later, at the end of 1874, he was declared bankrupt. The following notice appeared in The Age on 3 December 1874: ‘In liquidation, Sydenham Bowden, of Melbourne. Liabilities £6237 19s. Id.; assets, £5684 ; deficiency, £553 19s. Id. Mr. Lempriere, trustee.‘
There is much more about Bowden in the book list along with the suggestion that the "servant" in the photo could have been Fijian .
