Packer, musician and civil servant, was the eldest of the twelve children of Frederick Alexander Packer, organist of Reading Abbey and an associate of the Royal Academy of Music, and his wife Augusta, daughter of the composer Nathaniel Gow and granddaughter of Neil Gow, Scotland's 'national musician'. Packer sang and played the organ as a child, instructed by his parents. The family migrated to Hobart Town in 1852, becoming prominent in the musical life of the colony. Packer followed his father as a church organist, music teacher and a composer recognised beyond the colony. Some of his songs sustained long running popularity in nineteenth-century Australia, and his comic operas had successful seasons.
Packer was appointed to the colonial civil service in 1859 as chief operator in the telegraph office. He became chief clerk in the telegraph department in 1866; superintendent of telegraphs in 1873; assistant clerk and librarian in the House of Assembly in 1878 and clerk of the House from 1882 until his retirement in 1894. He moved to Sydney in 1895 and died after a long illness in the Parramatta Asylum. Sir Frank Packer of Consolidated Press was a grandnephew.
(Source: Adapted from R. L. Wettenhall, 'Packer, Frederick Augustus Gow (1839 - 1902)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 5, MUP, 1974, pp 387-388.)
