| Admin History | William John Rowe (1915-2004) was born at Redgate in the parish of St Cleer, Bodmin Moor. Initially educated at Trekieve Steps and Liskeard County School, he won a scholarship in 1935 to read Modern History at Brasenose College, Oxford. He graduated in 1938 with first class honours. After military service with the Royal Ordinance corps during the Second World War and a brief spell as a lecturer in the Extra Mural Department at the University of Exeter, Rowe became a lecturer on American and British Imperial History at Liverpool University in 1947. In 1953 Rowe published his seminal text 'Cornwall in the Age of the Industrial Revolution'. This book was later republished with additional new chapters in 1993 reflecting on religion and subsequent social change.
Rowe married Constance Rosevear in 1956 and two years later went to Berkley University in the United States where he lectured on British Imperial History for a year. He then spent 6 months following in the footsteps of the Cornish Miners of the Gold Rush era in the United States and Canadian Rockies. This research would form the basis of his book 'Hard Rock Men' published in the early 1960s.
Rowe was a close friend of A L Rowse and like Rowse, Rowe became a senior bard of the Cornish Gorsedh, elected in 1950 with the name Covathor and Howlesdhas (Chronicler of the West).
Rowe retired from Liverpool University in 1981 and was awarded the Hugh Le May Fellowship at Rhodes University, South Africa, the following year where he went on to research the Great Trek of the Boers of the 1830s. Rowe's later published the book 'Changing Times and Fortunes', which told the story of a Cornish farmer's life from 1828 - 1904.
Rowe was a member of the Cornwall Heritage Trust, president of the Cornwall branch of the Historical Association and president of the Federation of Old Cornwall Societies. He was also on the council of the Royal Cornwall Institution and worked closely with the Cornwall Records Office. |