George Fawcett Rowe

[4] Rowe Sr traveled to Australia in 1852, continuing to the Ballarat and Bendigo Goldfields region of Victoria, where he made a good living selling paintings to gold diggers who had become suddenly wealthy.

[4] In December 1858 he played the name part in an adaptation of Nicholas Nickleby, opposite Edmund Holloway's John Brodie, followed by Cameralzerman and Badoura.

He played Plumper in Cool as a Cucumber, by Blanchard Jerrold, Dazzle in London Assurance, Triplet in Masks and Faces,[6] and Salem Scudder in The Octoroon in 1861, starring Madame Marie Duret, under Rowe's management.

[9] Between 1859 and 1863 he was almost exclusively attached to the Princess's Theatre, as actor, manager and dramatist, writing numerous Victorian burlesques, pantomimes and other pieces.

[2] In 1863, he wrote a short musical The Captain of the Vulture (based on the novel by Mary Elizabeth Braddon), which played as an afterpiece to Tom and Jerry, or Life in London.

[12] In July 1865 Rowe and Mr and Mrs Charles Dillon left New Zealand for Callao, Peru, and then appeared at the Teatro Segura opera house in Lima.

In one week during this period at the Royal Lyceum Theatre, Sunderland he played Micawber in David Copperfield, Jack Wilding in The Liar; Plumper in Cool as a Cucumber; Clorinda in Cinderella and the title role in the French drama Salvator Rosa; other pieces were Masaniello, The Ticket-of-Leave Man, and the comedies The Wonder and The Serious Family.

[4] He asked for, and finally received, Charles Dickens' blessing for an adaptation of David Copperfield titled Little Em'ly that he and Andrew Halliday had written;[4] it was produced at London's Olympic Theatre in December 1869 and often revived.

An unhappy marriage to actress Kate Girard and unfortunate stock speculations drained Rowe of his sometimes considerable theatrical profits.