People on board

LOWDEN, Henry George

Henry George Lowden was born on the 14th of January 1892 in Ballymullen Barracks, Tralee, Co Kerry to William Lowden and Annie Fitzmaurice. On Henry’s birth certificate (written as William George) William’s occupation is given as Private Soldier, while on Henry’s sister Priscilla’s certificate in 1889 he was ‘Soldier Medical Staff Corps’. In the 1911 census Annie Lowden stated that three children had been born, with two living, but the third child has not been identified. Henry was a Telegram Messenger in 1911.

The family cannot be found in the 1901 census and in the 1911 census William Lowden was not present though Annie was not a widow. When Priscilla married in 1908 William was declared to be alive. A death in the Killarney Asylum in 1919 of a William Lowden, aged fifty-six and married, appears to explain the situation. This man died of a stroke following eighteen years and three months of chronic mania, his previous residence being Tralee Workhouse.

Henry George Lowden enlisted in the Irish Guards in 1915, Service Number 7233, and was wounded in France in October 1916. The Kerry Weekly Reporter on the 21st of October listed several Kerry deaths and wounded, including Henry Lowden, many of whom were from the Irish Guards. On the 12th of October 1918 The Liberator of Tralee reported that there had been several callers that day to its office from relatives of passengers on RMS Leinster looking for news. However, “one of them, a Miss Lowden, (presumably Priscilla, then Mrs Sweeney) was happy in being able to announce that her brother, a private in the Irish Guards had been saved”. Presumably he had been home on leave.

Henry Lowden’s Pension Records and his Medal Card both show that he had transferred to the Worcestershire Regiment, but not when. Priscilla may have forgotten that he was no longer with the Irish Guards in October 1918 or he may have transferred subsequently. He married Bridget Commane in Tralee in June 1924 giving his occupation as Postman and his address as Staff Barracks, Tralee. He and Bridget do not appear to have had any children. He died in February 1932 in the Allen Ryan tuberculosis hospital in Dublin aged just thirty-six.

His mother Annie died the following month in Tralee while Priscilla lived until 1982, dying at the age of ninety-two.