Born: 30 January, 1919 in London. Died: 22 August, 2008, at Donhead St Mary, Wiltshire, aged 89
LIEUTENANT-COLONEL Michael Lowry was a soldier decorated for bravery who fought against the Japanese in Burma, and afterwards strove for reconciliation with his former enemy. For more than half-a-century he was a stalwart of the Lonach Society
in Aberdeenshire, generously hosting a dram stop at the annual march by the Lonach Highlanders.
In August 2004 Lowry was one of the Far East veterans gathered at Sandhurst in a ceremony to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Second World War battles of Kohima and Imphal, an occasion attended by His Excellency Masaki Orita, the Japanese ambassador to the UK. The wreath-laying service organised by the Burma Campaign Society saw old foes unite to remember comrades who fell in the campaign of April-June 1944, in which the British 14th Army halted the Japanese advance towards India.
He was accompanied at the Sandhurst event by Lieutenant Masao Hirakubo, 84, a former Japanese officer now living in west London who was made an honorary OBE for his work in campaigning for reconciliation between Japanese and British veterans.
Lowry said: "The best thing about any reconciliation is that one says 'this can never be again', because in the end war doesn't solve problems."
Lowry maintained a youthful exuberance right into his 90th year. He was tall with a ready grin, and his favourite word in conversation was "you". He rarely mentioned himself, and then only in self-deprecating terms. He took enormous interest in the young, and throughout his long life always encouraged youngsters.
He expunged the awfulness of Burma in his account of the battle for Kohima in Fighting Through to Kohima (2003), a classic war memoir describing six years of infantry action on the Indian north-west frontier, in Arakan and at Kohima, where the tide finally turned against the Japanese.
A gripping account of war under the harshest conditions, the account typified the man in an inspiring story vividly and modestly told.
His Military Cross came in unusual circumstances in the communist insurrection in Malaya. A tip-off about a large-scale terrorist foodlift from a village in south-west Johore provided Lowry with an opportunity to strike decisively at the local communist cell.
Commanding D Company of the 1st Bn The Queen's Royal Regiment, Lowry, disguised as a sanitary inspector, made close reconnaissance of the village, later infiltrating his company into a patch of jungle nearby. His men remained concealed for eight days, remaining on the alert through mind games devised by Lowry. In the resulting action, all but two of the terrorists were captured alive and the foodlift foiled.
Michael Alastair Lowry enjoyed close family life. Educated at Uppingham and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, he proved a talented military man, but turned down a recommendation that he attend staff college in the belief that "I knew I wasn't going to be a general".
In 1950, a chance meeting with Aberdeenshire resident Donald Thesiger while playing cricket at Reigate in Surrey led to an invitation to spend a fortnight at his home, Bellabeg House in Strathdon. It was a holiday that changed Lowry's life completely. He met Mr Thesiger's three daughters, Nina, Rua and Zara, and fell in love with Rua.
The courtship took 11 years thanks to Lowry's army postings in Europe, the Middle East and Malaya, and commitments by Rua's family to the Royal Navy in Moscow, South America and Australia. When, in 1958, after eight years, he proposed, Rua brushed him off with: "Don't be silly. You're off to Somaliland tomorrow." But he persisted, and finally they became betrothed at Christmas 1960.
The slowness of their courtship nearly became matched by the speed of a wedding. Not one for an elaborate ceremony, Rua grabbed Michael's arm as they were passing Holy Trinity Church in Sloane Street, London, suggesting that they "go in and see if they can do us now".
"What? Now?" gasped an astonished cleric.
In the event, Lowry went off as commanding officer of his battalion to Aden, and he and Rua enjoyed a family wedding in 1961, with the new bride joining her husband in Aden and Hong Kong.
Strathdon and Lonach played a huge part in Lowry's life. He gladly adopted the kilt, annually welcoming the 150 Lonach Highlanders to his home at Tornashean in the strath, where – while his witty toast over the morning dram became legendary – his sincerity in praising the participation and standard of turn-out by youngsters uplifted the spirits of young Lonach Highlanders somewhat overawed by taking part in their first annual March.
In 1991, some 100 Atholl Highlanders swelled the Lonach ranks. Lowry related afterwards: "I told a story about one polar bear and two men. 'Three cheers' said somebody, and down went four crates of whisky."
Lowry retired from the regular army in 1964 to farm at Donhead St Mary, in Wiltshire, on the self-confessed premise that "I'm still young enough to turn sheep upside down and haul bales of hay around". He farmed almost to the end of his life, in spite of having broken his back playing rugby in the winter of 1947.
Lowry was predeceased by his wife in 1988, and is survived by his son, Robert.
GORDON CASELY
The full article contains 897 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
