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T R Lowe (War Service).
Theodore Ralph Lowe was born Melbourne on 27 February 1890, the son of the Rev. James and Mrs Louisa Elizabeth (Howell) Lowe, of Spencer Crescent, East Camberwell. He was at Geelong College for three years from 1904. He enlisted (6793) in the AIF on 17 July 1915, and embarked on
HMAT A18 Wiltshire on 18 November 1915 for Egypt. He was wounded in action in France on 10 August 1917, being hospitalised for a week. He had served for 1,000 days at the time of his death in France on 18 September 1918, shortly before the end of hostilities.
After Mont St Quentin was won by the Australian Second Division, they pushed further east, and about eighteen days after, they were heavily shelled by the Germans. A shell dropped in the gun pit, and Corporal Lowe of 12 Battery 4th Field Artillery was killed instantly, as described to the Red Cross Information Bureau by Sgt W G Gambrill, 12 Battery (of Lower Portland, NSW):
‘Lowe was the son of a Clergyman. I know him well as we had been on leave together in England. While we were in action near Roisel a shell came right into his gun pit, killing three of the men immediately (Cpl Lowe, Gnr H T Klingberg and Gnr A C E Smith), and fatally wounding two others (Gnr R W A Stevenson and Gnr H E Watts)’ Corporal T R Lowe was buried at Roisel Communal Cemetery Extension, alongside his comrades, in Grave III.D.5.
His older brother, Sgt Leslie Howell Lowe, ASC, did special educational work for soldiers in Belgium after the Armistice, and Pte Eric Victor Lowe, 13 Light Horse, was seriously wounded in France, and evacuated to Australia, embarking on 23 August 1917.
Sources: Based on an edited extract from Geelong Collegians at the Great War compiled by James Affleck. pp61-62 (citing Pegasus; Australian War Memorial; Commonwealth War Graves Commission; Photo Pegasus.)