On Chatham Naval Memorial is the name of C/TD/X 2211 Ordinary Signalman Ralph Brooksbank Lowe, serving on H.M.S. Jervis Bay with the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve who died 05/11/1940.

He was the son of Henry George Harold and Lilian Lowe, of Newcastle upon Tyne.

Linda Allies says:

My Uncle Ralph, ordinary signalman, was a volunteer who bravely died on 5th November 1940 for his country, on HMS Jervis Bay. He was born in Newcastle upon Tyne. He was only 21 years old. Nana never ever got over the loss of her eldest son. My Dad was his brother Harold; he also signed up to fight when he was only 17 years old. Ralph died at the hands of a German raider the Admiral Scheer.

We had a picture of the Jarvis Bay in our sitting room where on Remembrance Sunday we would put our poppies. Uncle Ralph was only twenty when he died Nan sent over Ralph’s birthday present for his twenty first birthday but this was returned unopened. Ralph was engaged to a Canadian girl.

His story is told in Bainbridge: Our Fallen Heroes 1939-45 Ian Johnson.

Acknowledgments: Barney Rice

Ralph Brooksbank Lowe is remembered at Gateshead on G39.103, at Newcastle on NUT012 and in our List of Ships’ Crews.