Monday, April 4, 2016

A Family at War


Wearing their husband’s uniforms, these three sisters-in-law had no idea the tragedy that was about to occur to their close family group. Husbands of all three women, and several other brothers were members of the Derbyshire and Nottingham Sherwood Foresters Regiment.The first tragic death would be would be Herbert Lowe, the youngest brother of Henry and John. He would die at Gallipoli on August 21st 1915 and his brother John would be there when he died.
Then like history repeating itself, not even a year later,  Beatrice’s husband Henry would die in 1916 on the first day of the Battle of the Somme and Elizabeth’s husband Arthur Ollerenshaw would be there to see him die. Henry , who was a stretcher bearer, had been carrying a wounded fellow soldier on his back to safety when he was hit by a sniper

4 comments:

  1. Hi Lauren
    Sorry to correct you but the middle lady in the Photograph is not Beatrice Lowe it is in fact Mary Webster who was the fiancée of Herbert Lowe. I have carried out extensive research into the Lowe family as both Henry and Herbert are on the War memorial outside St Pauls Church in Chester Green Derby and they formed part of a project that I undertook to research all of the servicemen on the WW1 memorial as part of the 100th anniversary. I made the same mistake in thinking that the photo is of Beatrice but I was corrected having spoken at length to the Daughter of John Lowe who at nearly 90 years of age has been an invaluable resource to the project. I have other family photographs including one of Henry Lowe, Beatrice and their 2 sons. Kind Regards Geoff Parton

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    1. Id love to compare photos with you ( I have one of Henry Beatrice and the two boys as well) and thought she looked quite like the girl in the middle of the "women" photo. And Id love if you would share any info you have on my G Grandfather and his family My email address is laurenbavin at gmail dot com

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  2. Thanks for that Geoff. Id got my information from another Lowe relative. I'll make that correction on my page. It makes the story even more tragic seeing Herbert died. Are we related then? John Lowe was my G Grandfather . I am a granddaughter of his daughter Nellie.

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  3. Hi Lauren,
    I will send you all of the info that I have - it is quite a lot! No sorry we are not related, how this all came about is that within St Pauls Church at Chester Green there is a Heritage Centre that tells the story of Chester Green right back from Roman times. We attend the Church, my wife's family originally lived in that area, and I asked one day in early 2014 if there were any detailed records of the men who are listed on the WW1 War memorial especially with the One Hundredth anniversary of the outbreak of WW1 in 2014. They had limited information but nothing of any detail so having researched my family for over 10 years I volunteered to put 'a face to a name' for all 75 men. Little did I know what I was taking on! After 18 months and 5 lever arch files later the project was completed (although I am still adding to it)and these records now reside in the Heritage Centre. I have met/been in contact with lots of relatives who have been an invaluable source of information and I took real pleasure in reuniting them with their ancestors as I wanted to tell the story of each of these men as best I could not only their deaths but also their lives. I now feel a personal connection with all of these men who paid the ultimate price. I will send you the files on Henry and Herbert Lowe, the one for Herbert also contains the information about John Lowe. Kind regards Geoff

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