Biography

Edwin Williamson Gowdy was born at “1/2-past 3pm” (when the time was recorded on a birth certificate it usually referred to a mutiple birth) on 6th October 1840 in Thornton, Yarm, Yorkshire, England. He arrived in New Zealand in 1863, and married Ann Jane Ross eleven months later on 14th November 1864 at his residence in Hampden, North Otago.

Edwin was a seaman, and seems to have lived in various parts of mainly coastal Otago according to the recorded birthplaces of his children; Hampden, Waikouaiti, Palmerston, Tapanui and Dunedin, where later on he lived in various streets in North East Valley, according to Stones and Wises Directories; 1907 – 1909 at 7 Selwyn Road, 1911 – 1915 at 24 Carr Street, Glenroy, and from 1919 at Miller Street. He died on 29th December 1921 aged 81 and was buried here in the cemetery on 31st December 1921, having lived 62 years in New Zealand.