William Roy Lowdon
From The Orange Wiki
LOWDON, William Roy
Service no: 10433
Place of birth: Orange
Address: Bathurst Road, Orange
Occupation: Baker
Next of kin: David Ritchie Lowdon (father), Bathurst Road, Orange
Date of enlistment: 13 March 1916
Place of enlistment: Sydney
Age at enlistment: 24
Fate: Embarked HMAT Marathon Sydney 16 July 1916. Hospitalised November 1916 suffering from measles. Killed in action, Belgium.
Date of death: 31 August 1917
Buried: Reninghelst New Military Cemetery, Poperinghe, Belgium, Plot 3, Row A, Grave 28
Willian Roy Lowdon [1] was born in Orange, and lived Bathurst Road. He and his father were the proprietors of Lowdon & Son Bakery in East Orange. Roy was Secretary of the Thistle Club, and sang at their gatherings. the Leader claimed “Roy was one of the most popular of the young men of Orange”. [2]
Roy enlisted in March 1916, and served in 1st Division Australian Army Service Corps. He was delivering supplies at Dickebusch* (Dickie Bush) in Belgium on 31 August 1917 when a shell fell on him. According to a fellow soldier fragments of bomb entered his armpit and he exclaimed “I’m hit Tick”, and died a few minutes later. He was 26.
How Roy Lowden died
Leader, 7 November 1917 p.2 [3]