Thomas Henry Lowry was a New Zealand farmer, cricketer and racehorse breeder.
Background
Educated at Christ"s College, Christchurch and at Jesus College, Cambridge University, Lowry inherited the family property, Okawa, of 20,000 acres, in the Hawke"s Bay region of the North Island when his father died in 1880. He married Helen ("Marsie") Watt, daughter of the New Zealand shipping magnate James Watt, in 1897.
Career
One of Marsie"s sisters married Robert Baden-Powell"s brother Francis. Another married the British explorer Ewart Grogan. Lowry played one first-class cricket match, captaining Hawke"s Bay to victory over Taranaki in 1892.
He constructed a cricket ground, "The Grove", on his property, which is still in use.
He helped the Hawke"s Bay Cricket Association bring out leading English professionals, including Albert Trott and Jack Board, to coach local players. He developed Okawa, which had been largely a sheep and cattle farm, into one of New Zealand"s leading racehorse studs.
Marsie was awarded the Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in 1918 in recognition of her charitable work for soldiers during World War I. Early in World World War II the Lowrys donated 10,000 pounds to the New Zealand Patriotic Fund for the construction of the "Lowry Hut" at Maadi Camp in Cairo. The "hut" was actually an extensive building incorporating a range of facilities for allied soldiers.
Their daughter Beet worked there throughout the war.
Lady Freyberg said of her work: "her value as a morale-raiser to the NZEF beyond price".