Individual Report: E30409 John LOWE

Rank:	First Name:	Second Name:
General Information
Rifleman	John	Joseph
From:	Enlistment Region:	Date of Birth (y-m-d):
Montreal QC	Eastern Quebec	1922-05-01
Appointment:	Company:	Platoon:
	D	17 Plt

Transportation - Home Base to Hong Kong

Members of 'C' Force from the East travelled across Canada by CNR troop train, picking up reinforcements enroute. Stops included Valcartier, Montreal, Ottawa, Armstrong ON, Capreol ON, Winnipeg, Melville SK, Saskatoon, Edmonton, Jasper, and Vancouver, arriving in Vancouver on Oct 27 at 0800 hrs.

The Winnipeg Grenadiers and the local soldiers that were with Brigade Headquarters from Winnipeg to BC travelled on a CPR train to Vancouver.

All members embarked from Vancouver on the ships AWATEA and PRINCE ROBERT. AWATEA was a New Zealand Liner and the PRINCE ROBERT was a converted cruiser. "C" Company of the Rifles was assigned to the PRINCE ROBERT, everyone else boarded the AWATEA. The ships sailed from Vancouver on Oct 27th and arrived in Hong Kong on November 16th, having made brief stops enroute at Honolulu and Manila.

Equipment earmarked for 'C' Force use was loaded on the ship DON JOSE, but would never reach Hong Kong as it was rerouted to Manila when hostilities commenced.

On arrival, all troops were quartered at Nanking Barracks, Sham Shui Po Camp, in Kowloon.

Battle Information

We do not have specific battle information for this soldier in our online database. For a detailed description of the battle from a Canadian perspective, visit Canadian Participation in the Defense of Hong Kong (published by the Historical Section, Canadian Military Headquarters).

Wounded Information

Date Wounded	Wound Description	References
41/12/25	N/A	36

Hospital Information

No record of hospital visits found.

POW Camps

Camp ID	Camp Name	Location	Company	Type of Work	Arrival Date	Departure Date
HK-SM-01	Stanley	Fort Stanley, Hong Kong Island			Capture	41 Dec 30
HK-NP-01	North Point	North Point, Hong Kong Island			41 Dec 30	42 Sep 26
HK-SA-02	Shamshuipo	Kowloon, Hong Kong			42 Sep 26	43 Jan 19
JP-Fu-5B	Omine	Kawasaki-machi, Fukuoka pref., Kyushu Island, Japan	Furukawa Industries Omine	Coal mining	43 Jan 23	45 Sep 22

Transport to Japan

Draft Number	Name of Ship	Departure Date	Arrival Date	Arrival Port	Comments	Reference
XD3B	Tatuta Maru	43 Jan 19, left Shamsuipo Camp, 0500 hrs; left Hong Kong 1300hrs	43 Jan 22, 0400 hrs	Nagasaki, Japan		Tony Banham

Transportation SE Asia to Home

Transport Mode	Arrival Destination	Arrival Date	Comments
HMCS Prince Robert draft 7	Esquimalt, BC	1945-10-20	Manila to Esquimalt, BC

Canadian repatriation Draft #7 will embark at Manila, berth 116, on H.M.C.S. Prince Robert for Vancouver, Canada, 29 Sep 45.

Post-war Photo

Other Military or Public Service

No other or additional related information found. Please submit documents to us using the contact link at the top of this page.

Death and Cemetery Information

Date of Death (y-m-d)	Cause of Death	Death Class
2012-12-21		Post War
Cemetery Location	Cemetery	Grave Number	Gravestone Marker

Gravestone Image

No other or additional related information found. Please submit documents to us using the contact link at the top of this page.

Obituary / Life Story

It is with a heavy heart that I inform you of the passing of a dear friend, Mr. John Joseph Lowe E30409, D Coy RRC, Hong Kong veteran. John passed away peacefully at 0240 this morning at the Morgan Place Care Home in Surrey, BC. John had been struggling the last year and a half fighting cancer and several months ago fell and broke his hip. Johnny was in D Coy with my Dad, Phil, Bob Barter and others. I will always remember his captivating smile, spontaneous chuckle and great sense of humour. I had the privilege to accompany John, Aubrey Flegg and Larry Stebbe to Hong Kong in 2005 with the Prime Minister (Paul Martin) and Minister of Veterans' Affairs, Albina Gaurnieri to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the HK POW's and to attend services at SaiWan War Cemetery and Stanley Military Cemetery. John and I shared a room for over a week and became very close. We stayed in close contact ever since. An obituary is forthcoming and the funeral date has not been set but it will be in early January. John's loving wife Florence has asked that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the HKVCA to support the HK Memorial Wall in Ottawa. The only two brothers that I know of that were in 'C' Force but in different battalions were John (RRC) and his brother James Alexander Lowe, H6719 who was with the Winnipeg Grenadiers. James was killed in the battle and I will never forget the many minutes John and I spent together at the Wall of Remembrance at Sai Wan when John found and touched his brother's name. Both John and James were born in Montreal. I will miss Johnny terribly but I sure as hell will never forget him. WE WILL REMEMBER THEM

Links and Other Resources

There may be more information on this individual available elsewhere on our web sites - please use the search tool found in the upper right corner of this page to view sources.

General Comments

John was born in Montreal on May 1, 1922. His proud parents were James Alexander Lowe and Ann McAllister Lowe. John’s mother’s maiden name was Harkins. John had five brothers and two sisters. John’s mother died when John was very young and his father worked out of town on the railroad. It was the time of the Great Depression, and the family struggled to maintain. John subsequently was brought up by the Lady’s Benevolent Society in Montreal. John initially went to school at King George School. He received his high school education at Westmount Secondary in Montreal. All of the Lowe brothers, except for the last born (who was too young), enlisted early in WWII. John joined the Royal Rifles of Canada on September 3, 1940. He trained in Val Cartier Quebec, Sussex New Brunswick, and Gander, Botwood and St John’s Newfoundland. One of John’s brothers, James Lowe, was living in Winnipeg at the time and enlisted with the Winnipeg Grenadiers. Tom Lowe and Ernest Lowe enlisted with the 48th Highlanders of the Black Watch in Montreal. James was killed in the Battle of Hong Kong and is buried at Sai Wan War Cemetery in Hong Kong. Tom was killed in the liberation of Holland. Ernest fought his way into Germany and John spent 44 months as a POW. Of the 4 Lowe brothers who went overseas, only John and Ernest returned. There is a photo where John is signing the Memorial Book at Sai Wan War Cemetery on January 22, 2005 in front of the Memorial Wall which bears James Lowe’s name. When John shipped out of Vancouver in 1941 on the Awatea, he was a proud member of 17 Platoon, D company, Royal Rifles of Canada. As part of “C” Force, he was one of the first Canadians to engage the enemy in WWII. John was nineteen years old when he was captured. He spent his 20th birthday as a POW. After 64 years he still remembers vividly the battle of Hong Kong. John was incarcerated in three camps. These were North Point, Shamshuipo, and Camp #9 Ormina coal mine in Kawasaki. Like all the Canadian soldiers from “C” Force who returned home from hell in the POW camps, John struggled both physically and mentally. His will remained strong however and he felt that if “I could make it through those camps, I can make it through anything.” After the war was over, John became a mechanic in his home town of Montreal. He soon felt the need to wander and headed out to British Columbia in 1946. He never returned to Montreal to live. He settled in Vancouver for awhile as a mechanic for the city. He then moved on to Vancouver Island where he worked maintaining heavy equipment for a logging company in Campbell River. John eventually returned to Vancouver and opened his own mechanical shop until he retired in 1985. John and his wonderful wife Florence currently reside in White Rock, BC. They have one son and one daughter. A sparkle comes to their eyes when they talk about their 3 grandchildren and their 3 great grandchildren.
Reprinted from HKVCA BC Region newsletter March 2005

This veteran was interviewed by Veterans Affairs. To view, visit the VAC Video Gallery page and use the search tool. Note: VAC moves pages around constantly, so you may have to work to find the video. Currently the best way to access the Hong Kong veteran interviews is to select the "Heroes Remember" category, then use the advanced search option and click on the "Hong Kong" campaign option.

’C’ Force Family Connections:

Brother of H6719 James Lowe

End of Report.

Report generated: 27 Apr 2025.

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Additional Notes

(These will not be visible on the printed copy)

Service numbers for officers ("X") are locally generated for reporting only. During World War II officers were not allocated service numbers until 1945.
'C' Force soldiers who died overseas are memorialized in the Books of Remembrance and the Canadian Virtual War Memorial, both sponsored by Veterans Affairs Canada. Please use the search utility at VAC to assist you.
Some birthdates and deathdates display as follows: 1918-00-00. In general, this indicates that we know the year but not the month or day.
Our POW camp links along with our References link (near the bottom of the 'C' Force home page) are designed to give you a starting point for your research. There were many camps with many name changes. The best resource for all POW camps in Japan is the Roger Mansell Center for Research site.
In most cases the rank displayed was the rank held before hostilities. Some veterans were promoted at some point prior to eventual post-war release from the army back in Canada. When notified of these changes we'll update the individual's record.
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In some cases the References displayed as part of this report generate questions because there is no indication of their meaning. They were inherited with the original database, and currently we do not know what the source is. We hope to solve this problem in future.
We have done our best to avoid errors and omissions, but if you find any issues with this report, either in accuracy, completeness or layout, please contact us using the link at the top of this page.
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