Alfred John Lowman

In 1886, aged only 16, Alfred embarked upon the vessel "Aberdeen" bound for Australia under the Assisted Immigration scheme. The ships log shows that he paid 4 pounds for his trip and that he had no relatives or contacts in the colony. The Aberdeen arrived in Sydney on the 13th April 1886.

By 1888 after working on cattle properties around QLD and NSW, Alfred had made his way to the Grafton region where he met Martha Morrow. Martha was from a prolific local family and was the sixth of 13 kids (plus three who died young) born to William and Sarah Morrow who originally came from County Cavan in Ireland. Sometime before marrying Martha (so the story goes) Alfred's mail was getting mixed up with someone of a similar name - they tossed a coin to see who should change their name and Alfred lost, hence the name change at this point from Lowman to Lohman. Although he married using the Lowman surname.

Prior to enlisting for WW1 Alfred Changed his name back to Lowman as the former was too Germanic.

David Edward enlisted as Lohman. His birth name was Lowman (see NSW BDM). The Whittlesea Cenotaphs have Lowman for David and Loman for Alfred. The Australian War Memorial and the Villers Bretonneux Memorial both show David as Lohman. He and his family kept this spelling.

Barbara, Doris and Iris were all born Lohman in the Grafton/Nowra area (see NSW BDM). Some old family records suggest Oxley QLD.

Glady and Alfred Jr were born Lohman in Lilydale VIC (see VIC BDM). The registered years were 1904 and 1906 respectively, different to the family records.

Regimental number 253

Religion Church of England

Occupation Bacon curer

Address Whittlesea, Victoria

Marital status Married

Age at embarkation 44

Next of kin Wife, Mrs Martha Lowman, Whittlesea, Victoria

Enlistment date 14 February 1916

Rank on enlistment Private

Unit name 3rd Pioneer Battalion, A Company

AWM Embarkation Roll number 14/15/1

Embarkation details Unit embarked from Melbourne, Victoria, on board HMAT A62 Wandilla on 6 June 1916

Rank from Nominal Roll Private

Unit from Nominal Roll 3rd Pioneer Battalion

Fate Returned to Australia 20 December 1917

Born: Eversley, Hook, Hampshire RG27, UK