Charles G Lowden private Northern Cavalry Dept Hussars No 12689

[Jean Hopewell]

Hello,

          I don't know if anyone can help. A friend of mine has found artifacts and a letter from the above WW1 soldier who was in the Machine gun Corps to his mother. It is dated August 1914. I am at a loss as to where to start. Any help out there? Jean

[ss002d6252]

27 minutes ago, Jean Hopewell said:

Hello,

          I don't know if anyone can help. A friend of mine has found artifacts and a letter from the above WW1 soldier who was in the Machine gun Corps to his mother. It is dated August 1914. I am at a loss as to where to start. Any help out there? Jean

Welcome aboard.

Are you wanting to just find out about the man or re-unite it with relatives ?

Craig

[Jean Hopewell]

Hi Craig, thank you for your speedy reply it would be good to know about Charlie as he signs the letter but if there was a chance we could return the artefacts l am sure my friend would be delighted.Jean

[ss002d6252]

Sgt 41390 Charles Gordon Lowden seems to have done well for himself as he was commissioned in to the Machine Gun Corps in August 1916 as a temporary 2nd Lt. By 1918 he seems to have been a temporary Lt and made up to an acting Captain as an Assistant Instructor in the Machine Gun Cavalry,

 

Craig

[ss002d6252]

Looking on Find My Past there are some pages indexed under #41390 (Which is unsual to see where a man has been commissioned).
https://search.findmypast.co.uk/record?id=GBM%2FWO363-4%2F007392021%2F00546&parentid=GBM%2FWO363-4%2F7392021%2F19%2F546

 

We can see that he enlisted in Scarborough on 27 Aug 1914 aged 25yrs and 3 months. NoK was Jane Lowden of 202 Abbey Road, Barrow in Furness,

 

1911 census for him. Looks like a wealthy family.

https://www.findmypast.co.uk/transcript?id=GBC%2F1911%2FRG14%2F25684%2F0057%2F3

Craig

[ss002d6252]

In 1939 he seems to still be in Barrow.

 

Married May Rogers in 1917


https://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/search.pl?start=1917&end=1917&sq=4&eq=4&type=Marriages&vol=6d&pgno=1414&db=bmd_1612775592&jsexec=1&mono=0&v=MTYxMzQxMDUzNzozODhmOTlkNGNjY2JiZGM3MTllNjIxZTZjZmQzMDBmODZiMGE2MTAw&searchdef=given%3Dcharles%2A%26db%3Dbmd_1612775592%26eq%3D4%26surname%3Dlowden%26sq%3D1%26s_given%3Dmay%26type%3DMarriages&action=Find

Craig

[ss002d6252]

3 children born in Barrow from 1920 to 1925


Seems that Gordon lived in the Ulverston area in later life from other records. I'd imagine he's likely deceased now (or doing very well to get to a 100). Looks like he had 2 daughters.

Craig

[Jean Hopewell]

Wow I thought I did well with Free BMD I used to be a transcriber but only found his death in Sept Qu 1964. You are right he died in Ulverston. I need to have a look at all the  info and relay it to my friend. I will be back later in the week. Many Thanks Jean.

[clk]

Hi Jean,

 

Welcome to the forum.

 

16 hours ago, ss002d6252 said:

In 1939 he seems to still be in Barrow.

 

Craig

 

Given the DoB, it looks like what's left of his officer service file is held by the MoD...

 

15 hours ago, Jean Hopewell said:

..his death in Sept Qu 1964.

 

It seems that he died on 18.8.1964

Image sourced from Ancestry

 

Edit:

It looks like he married a Hilda Walker in Q 3 1944 - ref: RD Ulverston 8E 1703

 

Regards

Chris

Edited 16 February , 2021 by clk

[clk]

Hi Jean,

 

Prior to his commission...

Images sourced from the London Gazette

 

Image sourced from Findmypast

 

...it looks like his service with the 18 Hussars would be covered by this free download, and 2 Machine Gun Squadron by this one.

 

Regards

Chris

[Jean Hopewell]

Many Thanks Chris l didn’t expect to receive so much information in such a short time l will have to sit down and go through it all then get back to you later in the week. Jean 

[Jean Hopewell]

Hi Chris, Looking at his record he went in with one number 12689 and after a promotion his number appears to have changed to 41390 is this normal procedure. Jean.

[ss002d6252]

3 minutes ago, Jean Hopewell said:

Hi Chris, Looking at his record he went in with one number 12689 and after a promotion his number appears to have changed to 41390 is this normal procedure. Jean.

The number changed before promotion (officers didn't have service numbers). A man could end up with multiple numbers as there wasn't any army wide number at this time.

 

Craig

[clk]

Hi Jean,

 

Following on a bit from Craig, whilst officers didn't have service numbers as such, they did have administrative reference numbers. Though the individual man might not be aware of his. In your case he seems to have had the admin reference number of P2090 as per the MoD file index extract above, where the 'P' prefix is indicative of an officer file. To confuse things further from the 'index of long numbers' held by the National Archives, it also seems that at one time, he had the officer admin number of 144504.

 

Image sourced from the National Archives

 

Unfortunately, I don't know what "9/4/3228" means.

 

Regards

Chris

 

 

[Jean Hopewell]

Hi Again, 

              Now you are confusing me even more. I have found out that May Rogers his first wife died in 1943 Sept Qu in Barrow then he must have married Hilda  Walker in Ulverston in Sept Qu 1944. What I can't work out is how he ended up getting married in Coventry the first time supposedly in 1917 when surely he was still serving in the army. would he have been demobbed so quickly or would he have to stay until the end of the war, hence the birth of the first child wasn't until 1920.

[clk]

Hi Jean,

 

Without seeing a copy of the file held by the MoD, I think that it is a bit difficult to establish precisely what happened to Charles after he was commissioned. The following note his subsequent promotions.

 

 

 

 

Images sourced from the London Gazette

 

What I didn't see was a notice in the London Gazette saying that he had relinquished his commission. We can though be pretty confident that he continued to serve at least until the early 1920s. The reason for saying that is because generally speaking the officer files for men that left the service shortly after the end of the war are held by the National Archives, whereas those that continued in service are held by the MoD.

 

17 hours ago, Jean Hopewell said:

What I can't work out is how he ended up getting married in Coventry the first time supposedly in 1917

 

My guess would be that Charles and May had met and decided to get married, and that having been granted permission by his Commanding Officer to do so, he was granted a short period of leave.

 

Regards

Chris

 

[Melmack]

I’m researching my family and saw this post.  I can give you info to get the artifacts and letter back to rhe family.

[Jean Hopewell]

Hello thank you for that I have been a bit overwhelmed by all the info I have received> have passed it to my friend to get her head around. Any info would be greatfully received. I have been making a family tree and have got as far as some of the grandchildren but haven't had time to get any further. Jean

[Melmack]

I’m one of his great grandchildren.  How are you related to the family?

[Jean Hopewell]

Hi Melmack,

                 Thank you for your mail. I am no relation to anyone within your family or at least I don't think so. This is a delicate situation as you can appreciate as we really would like my friends findings to be returned to Charlie's family so we would like a few more details if that's ok with you. Please would you be prepared to tell us maybe your date of birth or surname so we can be reassured that we are on the right track. We hope you are not offended by this request as we really want the outcome to be right. I don't know how we stand contacting each other away from the forum. Kind regards. Jean.

 

[Melmack]

I would rather talk off the forum.  Please give me your email if it’s ok or if you can think of another way.  I’m researching my family.   My uncle just did a book about my grandfather and great grandfather and it’s made me very curious about my family history. 

[Michelle Young]

Please do not post your email address on the public forum. Members can use the private messaging system to communicate off forum.

Michelle 

[Jean Hopewell]

Hello Again,

                   I don't know if this post will still be on the forum but I would like to say a big thank you to anyone who sent me info about Charlie Lowden. You will all be pleased to know that his family now have his letter to his mother and the shilling he received for singing on in August 1914. One happy ending.

                                                                    Many Thanks. Jean Hopewellnks. Jean Hopewell