Sapper Henry Lowerson
Lumley Churchyard
In Christ Churchyard is a family headstone which reads:
In loving Memory
of
Henderson Lowerson
the beloved husband of
Mary Jane Lowerson
who died at 6th Pit May 14th 1907
aged 52 years
Also Mary Jane
wife of the above
who died Sept. 16th 1921
aged 64 years
Also James Lowerson
son of the above
who died Sept. 17th 1911
aged 30 years
Also Henry son of the above
who was accidentally killed in
France Oct. 17th 1917 aged 30 years
Michael Bell has submitted the following:-
Henry was born in late 1887 in Great Lumley, probably at Lumley Terrace. His parents were Henderson Lowerson who was a Miner and Mary Jane (nee Punton). Both parents were born in Lumley and they were married in 1875.
In 1891 John was living at Lumley Terrace off Cocken Lane with his parents and siblings. By 1901 the family had moved to Sixth Pit and John was working as a Driver underground at 6th Pit.
In 1911 Henry was living with his widowed mother and four siblings at 6, Floaters Mill Terrace, Fence Houses and worked for Lambton Coal Company at 6th Pit as a (house) carpenter. Henry's father had died at 6th Pit on 14th May 1907. Henry's mother Mary Jane wrote 6, Floaters Mill Terrace, Fence Houses as their address on the 1911 census, however the enumerator classed them as living at 16, Wood Row, Lumley Colliery!
Henry enlisted as a Sapper at Houghton-le-Spring with the 55th Field Company of the Royal Engineers (service number 63243).
A sapper is a combatant or soldier who performs a variety of military engineering duties such as mining, bridge-building, trench building, making of dug-outs, laying or clearing minefields, demolitions, field defences and general construction, as well as road and airfield construction and repair. They are also trained to serve as infantry personnel in defensive and offensive operations. A sapper's duties are devoted to tasks involving facilitating movement of allied forces and impeding those of enemies.
Henry arrived in France 13th May 1915 with the 55th to join 7th Division. Two days after his arrival the 55th were involved in the Battle of Festubert (15th25th May 1915). In September 1915 the 55th Field Coy. were transfered to the Guards Division where they remained for the rest of the war. The 55th saw action with the Guards at Loos 25th Sep 5th Oct 1915, Flers-Courcelette 15th - 22nd Sep 1916, Morval 25th - 28th Sep 1916, Pilckem 31st Jul 2nd Aug 1917, Langemarck 16th - 18th Aug 1917, Menin Road 20th - 25th Sep 1917, Poelcappelle 9th Oct 1917, Passchendaele 12th Oct 1917.
During the 3rd battle of Ypres - 31st July - 10th November (Passchendaele) the field engineers were engaged in; improving the lines of communication, duck-boarding tracks, bridging streams, constructing mule tracks, building advanced field dressing-stations, building divisional unit battle headquarters and building cover for field guns, screening roads in exposed places, clearing blocked streams, removing obstacles from the path of tanks, destroying bogged down tanks, hauling guns from the mire, and laying tape to guide infantry units forward. The task of extending water pipelines became impractical so the engineers had to construct water storage tanks by the road side at which water could be collected in petrol cans and carried forward.
It was on the Ypres Road that Henry was accidentally killed on 17th October 1917, five months before his brother John Thomas went missing in action at the Somme.Henry is buried at Dozinghem Military Cemetary, Belgium
The 4th, 47th and 61st Casualty Clearing Stations were posted at Dozinghem and the military cemetery was used by them until early in 1918. There are now 3,174 Commonwealth burials of the First World War in the cemetery and 65 German war graves from this period. The cemetery also contains 73 Second World War burials dating from the Allied withdrawal to Dunkirk in May 1940.
Henry was awarded the Victory Medal, British War Medal and the 1914 - 15 Star.
Henry Lowerson is remembered at Great Lumley on G50.01, G50.02, G50.06 and Lumley 6th Pit Woodstone VillageW134.01
