The son of the soldier Alexander Hugh Cowie, he was born in February 1889 at Yeatton House in Hordle, Hampshire.
[1] Cowie was educated at Charterhouse School,[2] before matriculating to Caius College, Cambridge.
In that same season, he also played for a combined Oxford and Cambridge Universities team against a combined Army and Navy team at Aldershot, in addition to making two appearances for Hampshire in the County Championship;[3] in his second match for Hampshire against Lancashire, he took 5 for 94 in Lancashire's first innings.
[4] Randolph Hodgson operating under the pen-name 'A County Vicar' described him as an "intimidating" bowler,[5] with Wisden noting he was "somewhat erratic".
[1] A short poem of his, titled "Lines by Captain Alexander Gordon Cowie, Seaforth Highlanders", appeared after his death in The Lotus Magazine,[12] and has since been anthologized in books of war poetry.