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Philip Patrick Rowe (c. 1862–1896)

by Chris Cunneen

This article was published:

Philip Patrick Joseph Rowe (c.1862-1896) journalist and trade union official

Birth: about 1862 in County Tipperary, Ireland, son of Thomas Rowe (1810-1895), a farmer, born at Carrick-on-Suir, Tipperary, and Mary (b. 1829 surname unrecorded). Marriage: 1892 at Perth, Western Australia, to native-born Johanna Mary Hogan (1868-1927), born at Perth of Irish ancestry. Death: Registered as Philip James Rowe, 11 May 1896 at Ford Street, Coolgardie, Western Australia. Religion: Catholic. 

  • Reports of his death variously asserted that he was born in Victoria or Queensland, but his death certificate gives his place of birth as Tipperary, and as his friend Father Duff, eulogised, “Australia, the land of his adoption, was loved of him, but he never could forget the land of his birth [Ireland].”
  • Rowe probably came to Melbourne with his parents in infancy. His father, who spent thirty-three years in Australia “was afflicted with total blindness” in about 1867.
  • Young Philip lived in Victoria in his youth and was a member of the sodality of the Blessed Virgin at St Patrick’s College. He also spent some years with his parents in Queensland, where he was reputedly on the reporting staff of the Rockhampton Argus.
  • He may have been the “Patrick Phillip Joseph Rowe”, 23, who was dismissed from the office of a land agent at Maryborough, and charged with embezzlement, for whom a warrant was issued at Brisbane in June 1883. The Police Gazette described him as “5 feet 8 inches (173 cm) high, medium build, fair complexion, fair hair inclined to curl, small fair moustache . . . of good address and smart appearance”.
  • In January 1889, an employee in the Customs department in Victoria living at Carlton, he was involved in a court case over “an unsuccessful matrimonial enterprise” in Melbourne.
  • Moved with his aged parents to Western Australia about 1891 where his father died.
  • Founded and edited the short-lived radical newspaper, The People, in 1891-1892. Supported local trade unions. Was elected president of the Fremantle Lumpers’ Union. Later worked for Victoria Express. Contributed to the journals of Max Hirsch, the “apostle of the Single Tax” in Melbourne. In 1893 was secretary of the Licensed Victuallers’ Association of West Australia. That year he visited South Australia and other colonies as agent of A. McKenzie, electric light contractor, who was contracted to supply electric light to Perth and Fremantle.
  • Member of the WA Political Labor League. Was secretary of the Civil Service Commission in Perth in 1894-1895 before he moved to Coolgardie as the representative of the Morning Herald, from which he resigned to engage in the mining business.
  • Rowe was a devoted Catholic and a strong advocate of Irish Home Rule. Reputedly a personal friend of Michael Davitt, he was secretary of the reception committee which welcomed that distinguished Irishman to Western Australia in 1895.
  • Cause of death: syncope (about one week). Was survived by his widow and a widowed mother, aged 67.

Sources
D. J. Murphy (ed), Labor in Politics: State Labor Parties in Australia, 1880-1920 (St Lucia, Qld, 1975) p 381.

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Citation details

Chris Cunneen, 'Rowe, Philip Patrick (c. 1862–1896)', People Australia, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://peopleaustralia.anu.edu.au/biography/rowe-philip-patrick-34810/text43838, accessed 11 November 2024.

© Copyright People Australia, 2012

Life Summary [details]

Alternative Names
  • Rowe, Philp James
Birth

c. 1862
Tipperary, Ireland

Death

11 May, 1896 (aged ~ 34)
Coolgardie, Western Australia, Australia

Cause of Death

heart disease

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