Grave of Harold Lowe, Llandrillo
Harold Godfrey Lowe (d.1944)
Harold Lowe was born in Llandrillo-yn-Rhos in 1882 and went to sea aged 14, as a cabin boy on a traditional square-rigged sailing ship from Liverpool. During the next five years he earned enough certificates to make him an officer, and he signed up with the White Star Line in 1911.
On 14 April 1912, he was Fifth Officer on RMS Titanic when the newly built liner struck an iceberg. He was off watch at the time and fast asleep in his bunk. He wa
s alerted by the sound of voices outside his cabin on the boat deck. He quickly took charge of loading passengers into some of the lifeboats. It was only women and children who were allowed but a few men tried to get on the lifeboats. Lowe dissuaded them with his pistol and at one point he actually fired three shots over the side to show that he meant business.
He took charge of lifeboat 14 and ordered it to stay 150 yards from the sinking liner with the intention of returning to pick up survivors in the water. He gathered together four more lifeboats and transferred people from his own boat to the other four, then with a volunteer crew he set out to try to recover any survivors amongst the wreckage and dead bodies. His boat picked up four survivors, one of whom died from injuries. Eventually they were all rescued by the Carpathia.
Lowe served in the Royal Navy during the First World War, attaining the rank of Commander of the Royal Navy Reserve. He retired in 1931 and moved to this house in Deganwy. He died in 1944.