Robert Clyde Packer (1879 - 1934)

Born 24 Jul 1879 in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia

Ancestors

Husband of Ethel Maud (Hewson) Packer — married 13 Jul 1903 in St. Matthias Church, Paddington, New South Wales, Australia

Descendants

Died 12 Apr 1934 at age 54 in At sea

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Biography

Robert Packer is Notable.

Packer was born in Tasmania, the son of a senior customs official, Arthur Howard Packer (died 20 August 1912) and Margaret Fitzmaurice Packer (née Clyde; 1845–1915). Arthur Packer was a son of Frederick Alexander Packer and his wife Augusta (née Gow). Both were members of the Royal Academy of Music in London and had arrived in Hobart in 1852 so that Frederick could take up the position of organist at St. David's Cathedral in Davey Street. The Packers were originally from the Reading area in the Thames Valley and Frederick's father was a master pianoforte manufacturer who plied his trade for many years on London's Oxford Street.

Augusta was the granddaughter of Scotland's famous fiddler and composer of antiquity, Niel Gow of Dunkeld. Her father was Nathaniel Gow, a highly regarded musician and composer himself, who had a shop in Princes Street, Edinburgh in the early to mid-1800s.

Robert Clyde Packer married Ethel Maud Hewson (1878–1947), the youngest daughter of Rev. Frank Hewson, on 13 July 1903 at St. Matthias Church, Paddington, New South Wales. They had two children; Frank Packer (1906-1974) and Kathleen Mary Packer (1910-2000), known later as Lady Stening, wife of Sir George Stening (1904-1996).

Packer died of heart failure at age 54 while on board the P&O ship, RMS Maloja. The ship was cruising on the Mediterranean at the time. Packer was pronounced dead at Marseille, France and his son Frank inherited his publishing interests, expanding them into a formidable media empire, which was expanded still further by Frank's son Kerry and grandson, James. He was buried on 21 May 1934 in the Packer family mausoleum at South Head Cemetery. He left an estate valued at ₤54,706 to his wife, son and daughter. His wife, Ethel Packer died in Wellington, New Zealand on 1 April 1947, aged 72 years.

Sources

• NSW BDM marriage 6647/1903
• Find A Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 15 April 2019), memorial page for Robert Clyde Packer (24 Jul 1879–12 Apr 1934), Find A Grave Memorial no. 167300504, citing South Head Cemetery, Vaucluse, Waverley Council, New South Wales, Australia ; Maintained by Vox3000 (contributor 49056742)
• Wikipedia profile
• Richard White, 'Packer, Robert Clyde (1879–1934)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University