Emily Bowes

Emily Bowes was born in London, England, to William and Hannah Bowes, both from old New England families. Her early years were divided among Merioneth, Exmouth, and London, and in 1824 she commenced work as a governess to Revd John Hawkins in Berkshire, later moving to the home of Rev Sir Christopher John Musgrave, in Hove.

After these spells, Emily returned to London to stay with her parents in Clapton, North London. She attended the Plymouth Brethren assembly in Hackney, where she met her future husband, Philip Henry Gosse. They had known each other for several years before they married at Brook Street Chapel, Tottenham, in 1848. Emily was 42, and her husband was 38. Emily gave birth to their only child, Edmund in 1849. It has been incorrectly claimed that Emily was a Victorian landscape painter who studied with John Sell Cotman, and an illustrator whose work includes the uncredited chromolithographs for the book of her husband P. H. Gosse The Aquarium: an unveiling of the wonders of the deep sea (1854).

In April 1856, Emily discovered a lump in her breast and went with a friend to confirm her concerns with a local doctor. The next day, she and Philip saw a family member for a second opinion and were referred to James Paget, who recommended "instant excision". Following another recommendation, they pursued an alternative treatment with Jesse Weldon Fell. The treatment involved cutting lines into the breast and adding a series of topical applications, which caused Emily significant pain. The experience and her suffering is detailed in memoirs by her husband and son. They are also detailed in a review of a 2001 reprint of her husband's memorial. After eventually discontinuing the treatment, Emily died in Islington on 10 February 1857.