Alex Gow
19 October 1861 — 2 May 1919
Alex Gow (13‑59‑3/4)
Alexander Gow was born in Fife, Scotland, on 19 October 1861 son of James Gow and Christian Philp. In 1865, he arrived in Brisbane where his father operated a grocery store. Alex Gow trained as a compositor and worked in the printing trade. On 24 March 1884 at her parents’ home in New Farm, he married Mary Inglis Mathewson. There were seven children from the marriage.
In 1908 he purchased the interest of George Sillett in the undertaking firm Sillett and Barrett. Within two years, Alex Gow had total control of the firm and had started conducting funerals under his own name. He died on 2 May 1919 of gastric carcinoma. In keeping with the tradition of undertaking firms not conducting funerals for members of their own family, his funeral was arranged by John Hislop and Sons, which operated from two doors down from Alex Gow’s premises in Queen Street.
Alex Gow Funerals, now operated by the fourth generation of the family, moved to its current site in Newstead in 1963 when the traffic in Queen Street made it too difficult to conduct funerals and assemble corteges from the old site.
Alex Gow Undertaker's premises at 550 Queen Street, Brisbane, Queensland. Men from left to right: Alexander Gow, Robert Alexander (Bert) Gow; Thomas Learoyd. The business was first owned by Alistair Gow - John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland.