Life
1769-1844; b. Galway, son of Miss Morgan [née] of Galway and army surgeon Hudson Lowe; ensign, Salisbury; attached to Blucher; Governor of St. Helena, salary £12,000; KCB 1816; strained relations with Napoleon; castigated for treatment of Napoleon by Barry O’Meara [q.v.] in Napoleon in Exile (1822); attached to staff at Ceylon, 1825-31; engaged from retirement in petitions to vindicate his actions in St Helena; d. Charlotte Cottage, nr. Sloane St., Chelsea, having dissipated fortune on that fruitless campaign, 10 Jan. DIB
Hubert O’Connor, The Emperor and the Irishman, reviewed in Books Ireland (April 2009), p.79: Lowe was born in Galway, the son of an Scottish army surgeon and an Irish mother; he surrendered the garrison at Capri to Napoleon with cannon and 1,400 men at his command, and was castigated by Sir William Napier for losing in a few days what could have been defended for as many years. Wellington considered him ‘a very bad choice’ for the post at St. Helena, in which he succeeded Sir George Cockburn: ‘he was a man wanting in education and judgement. He was a stupid man, who knew nothing of the world ... and he was suspicious and jealous ... I always thought that Lowe was t he most unfit person to be charged with the care of Bonaparte’s person.’
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