Researching John Lowe

Lowe is one of only six players to have won the World Championship three or more times, and was the first person to win it in three separate decades; along with Phil Taylor, he remains one of only two players to achieve this. Amidst growing dissatisfaction with the British Darts Organisation, Lowe was also one of 16 players who in 1993 broke away to form their own governing body, the World Darts Council (now known as the Professional Darts Corporation).

John Lowe was born the son of Simon Lowe (or Low) and Margaret Lacy of London in 1553. His father Simon was perhaps the Simon Low who was a merchant-tailor and citizen of London. He was for some time a Protestant minister. After his conversion he studied at Douai. He was a servant at Anchin Abbey for 1578–1579. He entered the English College, Rome, arriving on 19 November 1581, and was ordained a deacon there on 19 August 1582, but there is no record of where and when he was ordained a priest. Leaving Rome in September 1583, he was recorded as leaving Rheims for the mission in England on 20 December 1583. Records show that his absence abroad had been noted by the English government.

By this time his father had died, and his mother Margaret was living on London Bridge. Walking with her one evening nearby in May 1586, he talked too unguardedly about his aspirations to martyrdom and was overheard and denounced to the authorities. He was immediately arrested. It is recorded that he was taken to the Clink in London on the 11 May of that year. He was executed by hanging, drawing and quartering at Tyburn on 8 October 1586. He was executed along with two fellow priests, John Adams and Robert Dibdale.

All three priests were beatified (the last stage prior to canonisation) by Pope John Paul II on 22 November 1987.

Members of the Lowe family maintained their loyalty to the Roman Catholic Church, refusing to take the Oath of Supremacy, losing privileges, titles and land to remain loyal to the Roman Catholic faith.

Lowe was born at Alloa, Clackmannanshire, Scotland, in 1948 and received his education at Hamilton Academy and the University of Glasgow, graduating MA, LLB.

Following an apprenticeship with a firm of solicitors and a short period in local government, in 1974 Lowe joined the Procurator Fiscal Service and worked in Procurator Fiscal offices at Kilmarnock, Glasgow and at Edinburgh.Lowe was subsequently appointed Deputy Crown Agent for Scotland (1984–86) and in 1988 took up the post of Regional Procurator Fiscal at Edinburgh, a position he held till 1991.

At the early age of 42, in 1991 Lowe was appointed Crown Agent for Scotland and in 1995 was invested CB, (Companion of the Order of the Bath.) In 1997 Lowe was appointed Sheriff of Glasgow and Strathkelvin, a position he held until his death at Edinburgh the following year.

Lowe was the eldest son of John Lowe of Salisbury, Wiltshire and his wife Mary Grove, daughter of William Grove of Shaftesbury. His father, who was a barrister, died in about 1636. Lowe was as student of Middle Temple from 1646 to 1647. He was J.P. for Wiltshire from July 1660 to 1662 and commissioner for assessment for Wiltshire from August 1660 until his death. He was knighted on 19 April 1661. In 1661, he was elected Member of Parliament for Shaftesbury in the Cavalier Parliament. He was also commissioner for assessment for Dorset from 1661 to his death and for Salisbury from 1661 to 1663 and from 1664 until his death. Lowe died at the age of about 38.

Lowe married Helen Hyde, daughter of Lawrence Hyde of Heale, Wiltshire, by 1655. They had a son and daughter and she died on 6 October 1661.

Lowe was the son of Sir Francis Lowe, 1st Baronet who was MP for Edgbaston from 1898 to 1929. Two of his brothers were talented lawn tennis players: Sir Francis Lowe, 2nd Baronet and Arthur Lowe.

Educated at Uppingham School, where he was captain of the cricket eleven, and at Oriel College, Oxford, Lowe was a lower-order right-handed batsman and a right-arm fast-medium bowler who made the ball swerve. He took five Lancashire wickets for just 30 runs on his debut for Oxford University in 1907. In the next game, he did even better, with six Worcestershire wickets for 43 runs in the first innings, and nine in the match. He was unable to sustain this success, but did enough to be awarded his Blue by appearing in the University Match against Cambridge University where, bowling in tandem with Humphrey Gilbert, he took seven wickets in all and gave Oxford a first-innings lead, but ended up on the losing side. When the university cricket season was over for 1907, Lowe made a single appearance for Warwickshire in a County Championship game against Hampshire, but he took only one wicket and did not play for the county again.

In both 1908 and 1909, Lowe continue to play for Oxford University, and in 1908 he achieved both his best bowling and batting performances. In the match against Surrey, after Oxford had been made to follow on. Lowe's batting, hitherto negligible, contributed 46 runs against some none-too-demanding Surrey bowling, before he was a rare victim for Jack Hobbs. In a run-heavy game against the "Gentlemen of England" immediately before the 1908 University Match, he took eight first-innings wickets for 144 runs and then, because the match was being used as a trial, was not bowled at all in the second innings, so that he never did achieve 10 wickets in a game. He took five wickets in the 1908 University Match and was batting when Oxford secured a narrow two-wicket victory. He had less success in 1909, but still did enough to secure a third Blue, though he took only one wicket in the University Match of that year.

In 1910, Lowe returned to Oxford for a fourth academic year and appeared in many of the first-class matches, but he lost form and was left out of the side to meet Cambridge. He did not play again in first-class cricket after this. His obituary in Wisden Cricketers' Almanack states that he also won a Blue for field hockey and was a "good golfer".

Lowe's later career is not always clear: he appears to have been in the Royal Naval Reserve during the First World War. In the 1920s, he was mentioned in the London Gazette as an officer in the Royal Air Force, from which he retired with the rank of wing commander in 1938.