Birthplace:
- Geeting [?], Norfolk

Birthdate:
- 22 March 1839

Nationality:
- English

Family Background:
- Rowley's father was Captain Richard Freeman Rowley R.N., and his grandfather Sir Charles Rowley Bart., "of Hill House", an Admiral of the White

At Sandhurst:
- No

Career before Halifax:
- Ensign, 79th Highlanders, 9 April 1861 (purchase)
- Lieutenant, 26 May 1865 (purchase)
- to 78th Highlanders by exchange, 22 August 1865

Postings while in NS Command:
- Halifax, 9 May 1869 to September 1870

Married:
- Evelyn Noad, of Fan Court, Lyne, Surrey, 27 September 1870

Died:
- 8 April 1874

As noted above, Rowley was the son of a Captain in the Royal Navy and the grandson of a Baronet, and Admiral of the White. He attended Harrow and then Cambridge before obtaining his first commission in the 79th Cameron Highlanders in April 1861. While serving in India with that regiment in 1864 Rowley became seriously ill. His condition was diagnosed as "Chronic Hepatitus and enlargement of the liver," and he had to be invalided at home. While there he exchanged into the 78th Highlanders. A report drawn up by the surgeon of the 79th described him as "of nervous temperament", which might to some extent explain some of the difficulties he got into while serving with the 78th in Montreal and Halifax. Rowley had left Halifax, never to return by September 1870, as his marriage to Evelyn Noad of Fan Court, Lyne, Surrey, took place on the 27th of that month, and he sold out of the service less than two months later. It is doubtful whether Rowley ever fully recovered from the illness which he had contracted earlier in India, for he died on 8 April 1874, less than four years after he sold out.