Grieve Richard (Dick) Lowden

The Upper Murray Great War Participants Roll lists the name LOWDEN, G.R. There was a family of Lowdens in the area, one of whom was Archie Lowden, also on the roll. It’s difficult to know how Grieve Richard Lowden fits in the Upper Murray, unless there is some link between himself and Archie’s family. In the Corryong Courier of 1917, there are references to a Dick Lowden, but it isn’t Grieve, as the dates don’t match.

Dick’s birth was recorded on Monday, December 23 1872, in the Dundee Courier (Scotland). “LOWDEN - At 32 Park Wynd, Dundee on the 22nd inst., the wife of Mr Archibald Lowden, (Mary) second officer ship Sealcote, of Liverpool, of a son.”Dick’s brother (name unknown) was born three years later, almost to the day, at the same address. Archibald had risen in rank and was now the chief officer of the barque “Phaeton”.

The 1881 Scotland Census provides us with information on Dick’s family. The census lists Mary (head, age 30), Richard (son, age 8), Archibald (son, age 5), Mary (daughter, age 3) and Williamina (daughter, age 3 months). Archibald senior would most likely have been at sea. Dick’s father passed away suddenly at the Royal Infirmary in Dundee on January 23 1889. Grieve was only 16 years old.

At the age of 15, in 1888, Dick became an apprentice indentured in the Merchant Navy. He was ‘bound’ to C barrie for a period of four years. A copy of a Certificate of Competency as Second Mate made out to Richard Grieve Lowden, dated November 3 1893, was found online.  Dicks first ship as 2nd Mate was the Juteopolis, a four-masted steel barque built in 1891 in Dundee, Scotland. Although originally built for the Indian Jute trade, she also hauled oil for the Anglo-American Oil Company, and later carried wheat for the Australian grain trade. As the Second Mate, Dicks duties would include supervising the loading and unloading of cargo and directing the crew in maintaining sails, repairing lines and chipping/painting the hull. There is also a R.G. Lowden who served as a 3rd Mate on the SS Tsinian, en route to Manila, Hong Kong, and Japan via Queensland ports and Port Darwin at the turn of the century. Between March 1896 and September 1894, he had been a 2nd or 3rd Mate on the following ships: Castor, SS Iona, SS Bellona, SS Avlona and SS Loch Katrine. In 1897, he gained his Master of a Foreign-going Ship Certificate of Competency.

On March 24 1916, Dick embarked on the SS Osterley, bound for Sydney. He was 43 years old and gave his occupation as “Mariner”

Dick enlisted in East Sydney on April 18 1917, at the age of 40. He was allocated Service Number 1115 and placed in the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force (AN&MEF). Dick gave his mother, Mary, as his next of kin. She had also immigrated to Australia, but it is unclear when. In 1916, she was living at 331 Ernest Road, North Sydney. Dick embarked at Sydney on SS Morinda on April 28 1917, arriving at Rabaul, New England, some days later. On May 14 1917, he was made Acting Warrent Officer and taken on strength with B Company of the Garrison.

The AN&MEF was a special force raised in August 1914 to occupy German New Guinea and destroy the powerful radio stations that had been established by the Germans. It would be the first force to see action in the Great War. In the short, sharp action that took place between September 11 and 13, 1914, six Australians from the force were killed or died of wounds, and another four were wounded. Australia would keep an occupational force stationed there, and it was this force that Dick joined. 

On April 7 1918, he returned to Australia on the SS Marsina and was struck off strength of the AN&MEF at his own request on May 7. For his service, he was awarded the British War Medal. His Service Records show that he also worked on two ships sailing from Sydney to Rabaul and return in July and August of 1919.

At this stage, no records of what Dick did after returning to Australia have been located.