Candidate to be Leicester MP

MR. F. W. LOWE.

Mr. Frank Lowe was born in 1852, and is the son of the late Mr. William Lowe, who had practised in Birmingham as a conveyancing solicitor for over 50 years. In 1883 he contested the Eastern Division of the borough against Ald. Cook, and obtained 3,025 votes. On the retirement of Mr. Hardy from the Conservative championship of the Harborough Division, after his defeat by Mr. Logan in May last year, Mr. Lowe was selected to contest the seat at the present election.

(Leicester Daily Post, 27th June 1892)

Dissolution of partnership, April 1881

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN, that the Trade of a Saddlers’ Ironmonger, hitherto carried on by EDWARD LOWE [Edward Lowe (1821-1915)] at the Walsall Works, Tower Road, Aston, Birmingham, will be Discontinued by him on and from the 31st March, 1881, an arrangement having been made for such trade to be Carried on after that date by ISAAC LOWE and his SON on their own account. All Debts due and owing to and by the said Edward Lowe in connection with the said trade will be received and paid by him, and all Persons having any Claim against him in connection therewith are requested to forward Particulars thereof to us for examination. – Dated this 30th day of March, 1881.

W. & F. W. LOWE, 12, Bennett’s Hill, Birmingham, Solicitors [his cousins William Lowe (1815-1892) and Sir Francis Lowe, 1st Bart.] for the said Edward Lowe.

(Birmingham Daily Post, 5th April 1881)

28 years an M.P.

28 YEARS AN M.P.

Sir Francis Lowe Not to Seek Re-election – Now 74 Years of Age

Sir Francis Lowe, member for the Edgbaston Division of Birmingham, will not seek re-election at the close of the present Parliament.

Sir Francis Lowe

He is seventy-four, and is the oldest Birmingham representative. He was born at Edgbaston in 1852, and was educated at King Edward’s School. A prominent solicitor, he sat for many years on the City Council, and took a big part in local affairs. No candidate to succeed him has yet been chosen.

Sir Francis contested East Birmingham in 1885 without success but was returned unopposed in 1898 for Edgbaston, which he has represented ever since. He was created a baronet in 1918.

(Daily Mirror, 21st July 1926)

Lowering the tone

THE OUTLOOK.

“LOWE”-RING THE TONE.

Sir Francis Lowe is regarded by all parties as the laughing-stock of Birmingham Parliamentary politics by reason of the silly futilities of criticism in which he indulges himself. Sir John Barnsley can take good care of himself against such a political opponent. But something more than the contest in Edgbaston is involved in Sir Francis’s suggestion that Sir John has been granted his knighthood as the price in advance of fighting the seat. Incidentally a chivalrous and sensitive man might deserve some consolation for a fight in which such “Lowe” methods are introduced. Sir Francis Lowe’s deplorable outbreak is a lowering of the tone of public controversy that should be – ad doubtless will be – repudiated by all self-respecting citizens. Everybody in Birmingham – if we except Sir Francis Lowe – is well aware that Sir John Barnsley was honoured by the King for over thirty years’ distinguished service in the Territorial Force and for other public work quite independent of politics. He is the last man in the world to seek political kudos from this recognition of practical voluntary patriotism. There may be an excuse for Sir Francis in the fact that his own knighthood happened to coincide with certain services as a puller of wires in the Conservative caucus. That coincidence should at least have taught the member for Edgbaston a wiser discretion than he now shows. He lives in a very large glass house. It may also be that, in these days of “optional obedience” on the part of Unionist Army officers, partisans like Sir Francis Lowe are unable to appreciate such single-minded loyalty as inspired Sir John Barnsley’s Territorial service. The truth is that the habit which has recently grown up in certain Unionist quarters of impugning motives and insinuating corruption has spread like a virus. Lord Willoughby de Broke was saying on Saturday, for example, that

there was not a single member of the Radical Government that he would trust, and if he had half-a-crown on the table he would lock it up and put it out of sight if either Mr. Asquith or Lloyd George were about.

Belonging to the same school of stupid insult is the following typical gem of invective from Mr. Maxse in this month’s “National Review”:

The British Isles must be bathed in blood in order that certain needy, greedy adventurers may enjoy £5,000 a year for a few more months. That is the naked and hideous truth which no partisanship can conceal.

It does not seem to occur to the men who ladle out such verbal garbage that the average elector will be shrewd enough to surmise that politicans who dwell so much on the sweets of office may be longing to turn out their opponents in order to reap the same benefits; and that the grapes are sour. Unfortunately there are more gullible voters who are not proof against the subconscious effect of this slander by stealth; and these are the electors the Lowes, the Willoughby de Brokes and the Maxses have in mind. The wide-awake and decent folk in all parties join in a common condemnation of this debasement of the standard of public debate.

(Birmingham Daily Gazette, 13th July 1914)