LOWELL, Rupert Leslie

Rupert Lowell was a 21 year old clerk when he enlisted at Broadmeadows, Melbourne, on 8 July, 1915. He had been living with his mother and sister, Violet, at 25 Grey Street, East Melbourne. Kathleen Lowell was a widow and in the 1909 Electoral Roll, decribed herself as a milliner. In 1919, with her daughter married and her son moved away, she would call herself a manager - she may have let out rooms in the house in the post war period. 

Rupert Lowell did training at Broadmeadows. On 15 October, 1915, he was promoted from Private to Corporal and, a day later, assigned as a Driver with the 18th Australian Army Service Corps. They embarked for Egypt on board HMAS 'Ascanius' A 11 on 10 November,  landing in Alexandria. Here, Rupert Lowell was transferred to the 28th Army Service Corps, again as a Driver. He was taken on strength on  3 March, 1916, reverting back to Private on transfer to the Supply Section on 13 March. On 1 April, he was promoted to Corporal/Clerk and transferred to the 10 Supply Section the , suggesting that his clerical skills had impressed his superiors and he remained out of the battle lines while in Egypt. 

On 17 June, 1916, Rupert Lowell embarked from Alexandria on board the 'Kalifant', disembarking at Marseilles on 24 June.  Here he must have been more heavily involved, this time as a Driver. The  28th Battalion fought at Pozieres from 28 July to 6 August, 1916, at Flers in October that year, and in the following year at Bullecourt, where they played a supporting role. It was the task of the Army Service Corps to make sure the troops were supplied. They had the task of unloading goods at ports and railway stations and moving them, sometimes by truck, at other times by teams of horses, to the Divisional Stores for distribution -   munitions, armaments, food, clothing, blankets, building materials like wood for lining trenches - whatever was necessary had to be brought in, so the Army Service Corps were essential to a successful war effort. On , 1917, Rupert Lowell must have done something heroic, as he was mentioned in Sir Douglas Haig's despatch of 9 April, 1917,although he did not receive his certificate until 19 August, 1920. He was given leave in England from 16 November - 7 December, 1917, when he reported back for duty.

Rupert Lowell was ill in June 1918, with syphilis, and hospitalised for 55 days at the 3rd Australian General Hospital in  Abbeville, France. As he was being treated for this, he developed nasal catarrh, which terminated his VD treatment.  He travelled back to the field on 31 August, rejoining his unit on 6 October, 1917.

He remained with the the 28th Battalion ASC throughout 1918 and into 1919, but must have found the stress of his job unbearable. In January, 1919, he put in a request to drop his rank as Sergeant and go back to being a Private. Perhaps he had seen too many of his men dead and wounded. Nevertheless, he continued to do his job and in October was again promtoed, this time to Staff Sergeant.  On 25 October, 1918, he went on leave in France returning after the war had ended on 15 November, 1918.  He remained in uniform  after the war, serving again as a clerk with the 18th Army Service Corps

Rupert Lowell ended his service because of injury. In July, 1913, he had injured his right eye in an accident. It was only slight problem until the battle of the Somme, but then tears began to run down from an obstructed tear duct. By 1919, the problem had become so bad that it was suggested that he return to Australia to consult a surgeon, 'specialist treatment advised'. He returned to Australia on 19 July, 1919, on board the 'Beltrana'  out of Devonport and was discharged from the army on 10 September.

On his return, Rupert moved back in to Grey St., with his mother, workign once more as a clerk, but by 1932, he was married to Edith (Newall), known as Edie, had two boys, Robert (Bobbie) and Rex, and was living at Suva, Fiji. They was still there in 1937, but moved back to Melbourne in 1938, where he worked as an insurance officer, and lived with Edie, the two boys and his mother at 38 Grant St., Malvern. In 1963, he was retired and living alone at 16 Sutherland St., Malvern East.