Evelyn Lowe: A Life Shaped by War

Below is a summary of Evelyn Lowe's Second World War Experiences - please see document to read her full story.

Evelyn Hose (née Lowe) was born on 23rd June 1917 at 254 Strand Road Bootle Lancashire England next to the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. Her father was Thomas Lowe who was a Canal Boatman at that time and her mother was Jane Lowe nee Hawkins. Her mother died in the third wave of the influenza epidemic in 1919 before Evelyn reached the age of two and her father died in an industrial accident in 1931 when she was 14. She was brought up by her step-mother Ethel Lowe nee Kay and had a hard childhood losing contact with her real mother's relatives and her father's parents.

Evelyn left school at 14 due to financial constraints. She worked in a soap factory and a meat canning factory before finding employment at Littlewoods Pools in Liverpool, where she worked throughout World War II. At Littlewoods she worked as a quality inspector of the rip panels on the barrage balloons, alternating between two weeks of night work and two weeks of day work.

The bombing of her home street, Strand Road, in Bootle left a lasting impact, with Evelyn witnessing the devastation and loss of lives first-hand. Her experiences intertwined with personal tragedy, including the loss of her unborn child and the deaths of family members in service.

Evelyn married Edward Hose, an agricultural worker and driver, in Burnley, on 20th December 1941. Edward was in a reserved occupation but he saw all his pals going up in the army and wanted to go himself. He joined the British Army and served in North Africa shortly after their marriage. Evelyn moved back to Bootle and resumed her war work while he was gone.

Evelyn's brother Omar Lowe who had married her husband's sister Violet also joined the British Army and was sent to Egypt with the 8th Army [see photograph]. He survived the war and died in 1997. Her other brother, William Lowe, died on 13th June 1943, just outside Tunis in Tunisia, and was buried in the Medjez-el-Bab War Cemetery.

Following the war, Evelyn and her husband settled in Burnley and had two children, a boy and a girl. They both worked for a time in Burnley for Lucas Industries before moving back to Bootle. They moved to Hampshire in 1962, then to Wiltshire and finally back to Lancashire in the early 70s.
Her husband Ted died in January 1990 and Evelyn died in 1991 at the age of 74 - she was buried next to her husband in Chorley Cemetery.