Brian J. Lowe (46-51) OBE, a retired Brigadier in the British Army, died on 27th January 2026 aged 92. He was predeceased by his first wife Anne in 1998 and by his second wife Lynn in 2022. A son and a daughter by his first marriage survive.

Growing up in Shropshire in a farming family with military connections, he entered the Nautical College in 1946 and went on to become Chief of the College in Lent Term 1951. A fine all-round sportsman, he represented the school at rugby, cricket, tennis, squash and cross country running and was awarded the Founders’ Medal in 1951.

An Army contemporary and friend, Richard Holworthy (50-55), writes: “After NCP Brian was enlisted for National Service as a rifleman with the King's Royal Rifle Corp. During his initial training he was selected as officer material, decided to become a regular soldier and went to the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst.

Commissioned into the King's Shropshire Light Infantry (KSLI) in Gottingen, Germany in 1954, he served with the KSLI in Kenya for two years during the Mau Mau insurgency followed by Middle East postings with the regiment in Bahrein to deal with rioting post-Suez and in Aden where the KSLI reinforced the garrison during the Yemeni Insurgency.

In 1958 Brian returned to UK and was appointed adjutant of the regimental depot at Shrewsbury, followed by the same role with 1 KSLI in Colchester. He attended the Staff College at Camberley in 1963, did a staff appointment at the School of Infantry Warminster involving the future development of infantry weapons, and then rejoined the KSLI in Malacca, Malaysia, where the regiment was serving as part of 18 Commonwealth Brigade.

By 1967 he was commanding B company KSLI. At no notice the unit was deployed to Mauritius to deal with a seriously deteriorating internal security situation there prior to the country’s independence. Brian was awarded the MBE subsequently where, as his citation stated, “his ability to work with the police, and the high standard he set for himself and demanded from his men, contributed to the success of law and order in the island.”

Subsequently Brian attended the Joint Services Staff College before taking up an appointment at the ministry of Defence. In 1973 he took command of 3 Light Infantry (LI) regiment in BAOR (British Army of the Rhine) into which the 1 KSLI had been integrated as part of a restructuring of the infantry. During the next two years 3 LI did two tours in Belfast during the Troubles. At the end of the first tour, he was Mentioned in Despatches; after the second he was appointed OBE.

Now marked out for higher command, he took up a full Colonel's appointment at UKLF (United Kingdom Land Forces) followed by that of Brigadier as Commandant of the School of Infantry. In 1982 he was selected to attend the RCDS (Royal College of Defence Studies) but at that point his wife Anne was diagnosed with cancer, so his final military appointment was as Divisional Brigadier of the Light Division at Winchester.

Following his retirement from the Army, Brian became Director General of the Defence Manufacturers’ Association, joined the Council of the CBI (Confederation of British Industry), served on the Central Council of the Royal Overseas League and became its Director General. Later he became a director of Lowe and Luck Motors before retiring fully in 2001.

After Anne died in 1998, a bitter blow for Brian, he acquired George, a Bernese mountain dog, for companionship and became a very enthusiastic dog walker. It was on one of these daily expeditions that he met Lynn who he married in 2003. For the next two decades, accompanied by Lynn, he was a regular attender at regimental functions and KSLI battlefield tours in Spain and France.

Brian was a great, but very modest and unpretentious, man who enriched the lives of all who met him.”