Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

John Murray Gow (1877-1921)

It is likely with the family break-up that he went into the John Sanderson’s and Co office in Melbourne probably organised by his father. He appears then become the bookkeeper at Moombooldool Station near his brother George, and then somewhere else for Mr Murray, after that he went to Forbes and seemed to have done many things there. It also appears that he was not great success with John Sanderson and seems to have been spoilt by his parents. He was married in 1916 at the age of 36 years. The marriage certificate shows John Murray Gow was a station manager of Canowindra in NSW when he married Nina Wellesley Chapman daughter of a very well-known surveyor at Goulburn in 1916.

Goulburn Evening Penny Post Thursday 3 August 1916
WEDDINGS. GOW--CHAPMAN. A simple but pretty wedding was solemnized at St. Saviour's Cathedral on Wednesday, by the Van. Archdeacon Bartlett, when Miss Wellesley, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. A. W. Chapman, was married to John Murray Gow, Belall, Canowindra. The two sisters of the bride acted as bridesmaids, attended by Pte. David Soutar (who belonged to the famous 3rd Battalion, present at the landing at Gallipoli), and Mr. Douglas Blanche. A reception was afterwards held at "Bracklinn," the residence of the parents of the bride, after which the happy pair left for Melbourne.

He then took up land near Canowindra, but he died in Goulburn on the 29th December 1921 at the age of 40 years leaving a widow and three children. He is buried in Goulburn Cemetery.

There were three children Florence Ethel Gow b 1917, Allison Wellesley Gow b 1919 and David Murray Gow b 1920. David Gow was a Flight Lieutenant and a pilot in the RAAF and was killed in action in the Second World War in Italy on the 25th May 1944. He is buried in the Rome War Cemetery .

Murray Gow’s father in law Mr (Archibald Wellesley) Chapman (District Surveyor) helped the widow with the property (Malongulli) for a time, but she then married the man who managed it, Norman McLean in 1925 and it is understood that there were two children by the second marriage, but only limited information is known about this family.