Queer Places:
70 Kingsdown Parade, Bristol BS6 5UQ, UK
University of Cambridge, 4 Mill Ln, Cambridge CB2 1RZ
Arnos Vale Cemetery and Crematorium, Bath Rd, Arno's Vale, Bristol BS4 3EW, United Kingdom
Richard Charles Rowe (December 6, 1853 – September 21, 1884) was born in Bristol, England, on December 6, 1853, the younger son of Richard Rowe, a resident of
70 Kingsdown Parade. He received his foundational education at Bristol Grammar School before continuing his studies at the University of London, where he matriculated in
October 1873 and earned a Bachelor of Science degree. Demonstrating a formidable aptitude for mathematics, Rowe entered Trinity College, Cambridge, as a sizar on February 3,
1873. He was named a scholar of the college in 1875 and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1877, achieving the prestigious rank of Third Wrangler and capturing the 2nd
Smith's Prize.
Building upon his academic successes at Cambridge, Rowe was elected a Fellow of Trinity College in 1878 and later obtained his Master of Arts in 1880. His professional
trajectory quickly established him as a rising figure in the British mathematical community. Between 1880 and 1884, he served as Professor of Pure Mathematics at University
College, London, while also acting as an assistant tutor at Trinity College, Cambridge.
Rowe was a member of the elite intellectual secret society known as the Cambridge Apostles. Through this affiliation, as
well as broader Victorian homosocial and intellectual networks among Cambridge scholars, his life intersects with the homosocial structures often examined in studies of
nineteenth-century intellectual friendships, though explicit documentation regarding private romantic links remains unrecorded.
Rowe's promising academic career was cut tragically short when he died at the age of thirty on September 21, 1884, at The Lodge in Farnham Royal, Buckinghamshire. His
remains were returned to his native city, where he was laid to rest in Arnos Vale Cemetery and Crematorium. His memorial stone honors his legacy as a brilliant
mathematician, fellow, and professor, inscribed with the scriptural passages: "So he giveth his beloved sleep" and "I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness."
References:
Other references:
- The Guardian: Issue dated September 24, 1884 (contemporary notice regarding his death).
- Cambridge Review: Issue dated October 15, 1884 (obituary and academic notices).
- Frederic Boase: Modern English Biography, Volume III, entry 326.
- Alumni Cantabrigienses: University of Cambridge biographical records for Richard Charles Rowe (admitted February 3, 1873, as a sizar at Trinity College).
- Arnos Vale Cemetery and Crematorium: Monumental inscription and burial records, Bristol, England.
- William Kingdon Clifford, Richard Charles Rowe, and Karl Pearson: The Common Sense of the Exact Sciences (1885 publication).
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