Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Rowe, Richard
ROWE, RICHARD (1828–1879), author, son of Thomas Rowe, a Wesleyan methodist minister (1785–1835), by Susannah Jackson (1802–1873), was born at Spring Gardens, Doncaster, on 9 March 1828. After attending several private schools he emigrated to Australia, and described his interesting experiences there in contributions to the Australian press. Returning to Great Britain, he betook himself to journalism, and for some time held a position in Edinburgh on the ‘Scotsman.’ Subsequently he worked in London, where he studied closely the conditions of life among the poor. He embodied some results of his researches in his pathetic ‘Episodes in an Obscure Life,’ 1871, 3 vols., which had a wide circulation. He published also twenty stories for children, some of which appeared under the pseudonyms of Charles Camden and Edward Howe. He died in Middlesex Hospital, London, on 9 Dec. 1879, after undergoing an operation for cancer of the tongue, and was buried in Highgate cemetery on 15 Dec. He married, on 12 May 1860, Mary Ann Yates, daughter of Jonathan Patten, by whom he left four children.
[The Day of Rest, February 1880, pp. 116–21, with portrait; Times, 15 Dec. 1879, p. 11; Athenæum, 13 Dec. 1879, p. 765; Academy, 20 Dec. 1879, p. 446.]