Sometime later that same year they decide to move from Ireland to the lovely town of Cockermouth in Cumberland, England where they settle down and have many more children starting with Robert in 1841, Joseph in 1846, James in 1849, Mary Ann in 1851, Thomas in 1854 and finally Hannah in 1856.

 

Their third son, Joseph, met a pretty girl named Margaret Queen who was born in Whitehaven, Cumberland in 1849.  They married in 1870 and settle down in St. Helens Street, Cockermouth to raise a family.  Their first son, Thomas is born in 1876, followed by James in 1878 and Joseph William on the 28th of September, 1880.  Sadly James will only live to age 24.

 

Joseph William Lowden is a young man working as a Butchers Labourer, when at the tender age of 18 on the 11th day of February 1898 he joins the 10th Royal Hussars.  

After 12 months training in Canterbury he is posted to South Africa on the 6th of November 1899 and will fight on the front line in the  Boer War. 

He is awarded the Queens South Africa medal and has an unheard of six campaign clasps:-

Paardeberg

Driefontein

The Relief of Kimberley

Johannesburg

Diamond Hill

Wittebergen

He also receives the Kings South Africa medal.

In 1902 Private Lowden ships out from the war torn shores of  South Africa to mysterious and exotic India.  Over the next six years he not only develops a love for India but a passion for playing Polo.  Considered by many to be one of the regiments finest horsemen, Officers will often shout Joseph drinks at the bar with their winnings from the days Polo match.    

In 1908 he is briefly posted back to England but returns to India in November 1909 & remains there until 1912.

 In years to come he will share many stories of his time in India with his children.  One favourite story was King George V’s Coronation Durbar held in British India in December 1911.  He proudly shows them his Delhi Durbar Medal 1911 & recounts how he was one of four horse guards protecting the Queen while she rode atop a grand elephant.  Boasting how he was so close that he could have reached out & touched her foot.

 

November 1912 sees him back in Sth Africa for a two year posting until September 1914.

 

On the 10th of October 1914 he sets sail for France where he will serve his country for 4 years in WWI, and not return until 15 September 1919.  As a cavalryman he will spent the entire war on the front line earning himself three medals, the 1914 Star, The British War Medal 1914 - 1920 and The Victory Medal 1914 - 1919, he is also awarded many clasps and roses for service under fire.  He never talks about his time in Belgium or France but history tells us that he served in the worst conditions imaginable and witnessed the loss of thousands and men and horses.

 

On February 10 1920 he is “discharged on termination of engagement and granted 28 days furlough” and is discharged as a soldier on March 8, 1920.

 

Following WWI Joseph remains in service with the Hussars as an officers groom, where he trains cadets, brakes in new horses and teaches the officers wives how to ride and play polo. 

 

He is stationed in Canterbury and during the early part of the 1920’s meets and falls in love with a young girl names Elizabeth Ann Taylor.  Lizzy, as he affectionately calls her is wheelchair bound following a tragic accident as a child when she falls down a man hole and badly breaks her leg.  She will endure years of agonising operations and eventually finds herself wheelchair bound.  When the much older and very handsome Private Lowden shows an interest in her she tells him that she will not marry until she is able to walk down the isle unassisted.  Joseph sets about helping Lizzy to walk again, spending hours and hours walking up and down Military Road in Canterbury using the barrack wall for support. 

 

Lizzy lives at no. 3 Military Road. one of ten children to George Richard Taylor a fishmonger and Amy Barton.  Her father is none too pleased when she announces in 1923 that she will marry Joseph, a man 22 years her senior.  Joseph obviously feels the age gap himself and puts his age at 39 on his wedding certificate when in fact he is 43!

 

Jim and Lizzy will enjoy a fruitful marriage having six children of their own. Joan Margaret in 1924, Joseph William Derek in 1927, George in 1933, June Ann in 1934, Robert David in 1941 and finally Evelyn Elizabeth Kathleen in 1942.

 

At some time in the 1920’s Joseph is employed by the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire to train polo ponies at Chatsworth House in Derbyshire, England.  He holds a letter of reference written by Captain Mitford and given to him while he served in Rawal Pindi, India.  Captain Clem Mitford is the Uncle of the infamous “Mitford Sisters” and Joseph teaches all of the sisters to ride while in service at Chatsworth House. 

 

In September 1939 at the outbreak of WWII the family are living at 72 Barrack Road in Hounslow positioned between Hounslow Barracks and Heathrow Airport.  Joseph, now aged 59 and working as a gardener for the local council, builds an air raid shelter in the garden as the street endures constant bombing in the blitz.  Joseph refuses to go into the shelter during the raids and will sit on top with one child at a time pointing out the different plains and watching as a spotlight catches an enemy bomber in it’s lights and is shot down.  As all the children in the area are being evacuated George and June, now called Nan by the family, are sent to live with Josephs brother, Tommy, who still lives in St. Helens Street, Cockermouth, Cumberland.  When George and Nan return to the family home following VE day in 1944 they discover they have a new little brother, Bobby and a baby sister Evelyn.

 

Sadly, in August 1962 Lizzy will die from Cancer, aged only 60.  Joseph will pass away in 1969 at the ripe old age of 89 having outlived his young wife, fathering six children, survived two world wars and served his country for more than 20 years without a single injury.  

 

 

In loving memory of