TOPIC:

Thank you, Jake.

He is listed on the WPMR QSA roll WO100/278p183 for the QSA with clasp Cape Colony. He is also on the supplementary roll WO100/278p255 for the clasp South Africa 1901.

There are no notes to suggest he served elsewhere and a search for Lowers using the Ancestry index does show these two WPMR entries and 2 other men but these are both indexing errors for the surname Towers.

A further search of the campaign medals for which information is held at the UK National Archives does not bring up any matches. He is not on the roll for the CGHGSM either so I am struggling to see where his prior service came from.

If you have a FindMyPast subscription, you can search their register. Alternatively, you may be able to visit the National Archives in London (?) to papers relating to service in Her Majesty's forces. This is the same index that FindMyPast have on line.

Yeh, I've trawled through as many sources as I can including FindMyPast (found the 2 medal rolls previously and edited the original post to include them) but to no avail. Its fustrating to have found so much and to have hit this brickwall now in South Africa where I can't locate any information about his life previous apart from knowing he said he had served in the forces prior to the boer war, Whilst his Wife is simply refered to as Hester the whole time with no maiden name listed as there marriage record seems to have been lost to time so it seems impossible to go back any further unfortunately at this point.

I Appreciate you trying for me incase I had missed anything but i guess its looking like the only records if any will have not been digitised yet in the National Archives or be somewhere in South Africa unless they have just been lost through the years unless anyones got any other ideas?

Jake,

Here are two possibilities in SA. Attached is a headstone of a John William Lowers who died in 1954 and is from the Stellewood Cemetery in Durban and below is the SA Archives ref for a John William Lowers who died in 1966 also in Natal. Both show wife's names.



DEPOT NAB
SOURCE MSCE
TYPE LEER
SYSTEM 01
REFERENCE 1278/1966
PART 1
DESCRIPTION LOWERS, JOHN WILLIAM. BORN IN CAPE PROVINCE. S SP LOWERS, MARGARET
BEATRICE. BORN GIELINK. DECEASED ESTATE.
STARTING 19660000
ENDING 19660000

Can I ask where you found the image of that headstone? That may well be them as I am aware that John William Lowers and Hester named there first Son John William which is where things get a bit complicated. I know Hester is Buried in Plumstead Cemetary in 1918 but up to this point I'd found nothing on John William or his Son. So it seems possible they may have moved across the country to Durham. Hester and Johns other Sons ended up in the Merchant Navy which is how they came across to the Uk.

If anyone is based in SA at all ( i'm not sure how the archives work out there) but if you ever get a chance to have a look for any records mentioning a John William Lowers, Hester Lowers, Arthur Lowers, Edward Lowers or James Lowers I would love to see them. Real Shame I can't seem to follow anything more based on John Williams military Service.Do you think I'm right in thinking he had Served recently and to extent as an NCO with Rank due to his appointment as RQMS for the WPMR?

Queen's South Africa Medal:
441 R.Q.M. SJT: J. W. LOWERS. W. PROV: M. R.