Image of Jesus College war memorial

Henry Price Rowe, Captain Royal Engineers (Signals)

​Henry Price Rowe came up to Cambridge in October 1908 from Blundell’s School in Tiverton, Devon but only stayed in College for two years. 

​Born: Hampstead, London 19 June 1889

Died of pneumonia: 6 November 1918

​It is possible that he transferred from Clare, as the College Examinations Book shows “June 19064 at Clare” and then “December 19084”.  After that it says he went down in June 1910.   The superscript 4 is, we believe, the level attained in the exam. 

Whilst at College it seems he played both hockey and rugby.  In Rowe’s first year he played in the annual fixture against Trinity College, Oxford, which was “witnessed by the largest crowd seen on the Close for many years”.  Sadly it was not a victorious occasion, in fact it appears that Trinity won the fixture most years, although it is remarked that the Oxford XV drew largely on the Trinity men.  Chanticlere also noted that the Trinity team had a superior weight advantage which was put to good use in the second half overturning the 7 -6 Jesus lead at half-time to win 21-7.  Rowe played at three-quarter and weighed 11st 10lbs and was described as “Fast, without much resource.” (Lent Term 1909, pp. 58-59)

He was a full back for the first Hockey XI in the 1909-10 season, which was no mean feat as Hockey was booming in College.  The Chanticlere claimed that the College could raise four teams that year.  However, the first team failed to retain the league championship that year, coming second to Caius. (Lent Term 1910, p. 49)

For some reason there is no obituary in the Annual Report for Rowe so we know nothing of his life after college, nor his war record other than the basics.

You can email us on ww1-project@jesus.cam.ac.uk, go to our First World War homepage, or find us on Lives of the First World War.