Bot at 06:40, 15 April 2022

2022-04-15T06:40:47Z

New page

{{Short description|Officer in the Indian Navy, and writer}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
'''Charles Rathbone Low''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|FRGS}} (1837–1918) was a British officer of the [[Bombay Marine|Indian Navy]] and writer.

==Background==
Son of Major John Handcock Low of the [[East India Company]] and of the 39th Bengal Native Infantry, he was born in Dublin, in 1837.<ref name="IBD">{{cite IBD1915|wstitle=Low, Charles Rathbone}}</ref><ref name="Biograph">{{cite book |title=The Biograph and Review |date=1879 |publisher=E.W. Allen |page=424|volume=1 |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433082347174&view=1up&seq=439 |language=en}}</ref>

His father was killed in 1849 at [[Rajmahal]].<ref>{{cite book |title=East-India Register and Army List |date=1850 |publisher=W.H. Allen |page=269 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VTUoAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA269 |language=en}}</ref> He was born in 1805, the youngest son of William John Low of Lowville, [[County Galway]], and his wife the Hon. Sophie Hamilton, daughter of [[Richard Hamilton, 4th Viscount Boyne]]; he married Emily Revell in 1830, and she died in 1847.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Foster |first1=Joseph |title=The royal lineage of our noble and gentle families, together with their paternal ancestry |date=1887 |page=129|volume=V |url=https://archive.org/details/royallineageofou05fost/page/129/mode/1up |language=English}}</ref> He married again, in 1848, to Clementina Clara Jane Hockley, daughter of Joseph Hockley.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hodson |first1=Vernon Charles Paget |title=List of the Officers of the Bengal Army, 1758-1834: L-R |date=1946 |publisher=Constable |page=81|volume=IV |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=euA5AQAAIAAJ |language=en}}</ref>

William Low, who served with the [[67th Regiment of Foot]], was the son of Nathaniel Low(e) of Lowville, who married Jane Handcock. She was the daughter of Robert Handcock, brother of Dean [[Richard Handcock (priest)|Richard Hancock]], and his wife Jane Blackburne.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Biograph and Review |date=1879 |publisher=E.W. Allen |page=438|volume=1 |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433082347174&view=1up&seq=438 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Burke |first1=Bernard |title=A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain & Ireland |date=1882 |publisher=Harrison |page=731|volume=I |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rh73K_M00b8C&pg=PA731 |language=en}}</ref>

==Life==
Charles Rathbone Low was taken to India at age a few months, and attended school in [[Simla]]. He returned to live in England at age seven, and was orphaned.<ref name="Biograph" />

Low joined the East India Company's Navy in 1853, and took part in the suppression of piracy and slave trading in the Indian and China Seas, Persian Gulf, Red Sea, and off the East Coast of Africa.<ref name="IBD" /> He wrote in his ''History of the Indian Navy'' of serving in the [[HCS Mahi (1834)|HCS ''Mahi'']];<ref>{{cite book |last1=Low |first1=Charles Rathbone |title=History of the Indian Navy: (1613-1863) |date=1877 |publisher=R. Bentley and son |page=386 note|volume=II |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9vugAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA386 |language=en}}</ref> he was a midshipman on her from 1855, and rose to the rank of lieutenant.<ref>{{cite book |title=The India Office and Burma Office List |date=1855 |page=93 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ygMLAQAAIAAJ&pg=RA2-PA93 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Sun">{{cite book |last1=Low |first1=Charles Rathbone |title=The Land of the Sun: Sketches of travel ... in the East |date=1870 |publisher=Hodder & Stoughton |location=London |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YJkBAAAAQAAJ |language=en}}</ref>

When the Navy was closed down in 1863, Low became a professional writer, in England.<ref name="Allibone">{{cite book |last1=Kirk |first1=John Foster |title=A Supplement to Allibone's Critical Dictionary of English Literature and British and American Authors: Containing Over Thirty-seven Thousand Articles (authors), and Enumerating Over Ninety-three Thousand Titles |date=1899 |publisher=J. B. Lippincott Company |page=1020|volume=II |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zdYcAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA1020 |language=en}}</ref> He was the first Librarian and Assistant Secretary of the [[Royal United Service Institution]], 1865–68. He represented the Indian Navy at the Jubilee Service of Empress Victoria, 1887 and other royal events.<ref name="IBD" />

==Works==
Low published books in a number of genres. He was also a prolific author of magazine articles.<ref name="IBD" /> He began his writing career with a mixture of juvenile adventure stories and factual articles in ''[[Cassell's Magazine]]'', ''[[Chamber's Journal]]'', ''[[The Leisure Hour]]'', ''[[The Quiver]]'' and ''[[Routledge's Magazine for Boys]]''.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Biograph and Review |date=1879 |page=439|volume=1 (Jan.-June 1879). |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433082347174&view=1up&seq=439 |language=en}}</ref> Tucker calls him an "indefatigable exhibitor of national kudos", as well as "a patriotic crank of the old school".<ref name="Tucker2">{{cite book |last1=Tucker |first1=Herbert F. |title=Epic: Britain's Heroic Muse 1790-1910 |date=2008 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-923299-4 |page=551|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0aMSDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA551 |language=en}}</ref>

===Geographical===
Low was a Referee for the [[Royal Geographical Society]], of which he was a Fellow. ''The Land of the Sun'' (1870) was travel writing, with full subtitle ''Sketches of Travel, with Memoranda, Historical and Geographical, of Places of Interest in the East''. He worked on ''The India Directory, for the guidance of commanders of steamers and sailing vessels'' (from 1874) of [[Alfred Dundas Taylor]], another former Indian Navy officer, a replacement for the work on charts of [[James Horsburgh]].<ref name="IBD" /><ref name="Sun" /><ref>{{cite book |title=The Biograph and Review |date=1879 |page=442|volume=1 (Jan.-June 1879). |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433082347174&view=1up&seq=442 |language=en}}</ref>

===Historical===
* ''The Great Battles of the British Navy'' (1872)<ref name="Allibone" />
* ''The Great Battles of the British Army'' (1885), with [[Henry Yule]]<ref name="Allibone" />
*''History of the Indian Navy'' (1877, 2 vols.),<ref name="Allibone" /> originally published in 1876–7 in parts, in ''Colburn's United Service Magazine''.<ref name="IBD" /><ref>{{cite book |last1=Markham |first1=Sir Clements Robert |last2=Office |first2=Great Britain India |title=A Memoir on the Indian Surveys |date=1878 |publisher=W. H. Allen and Company |location=39 note 3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0KoMAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA39 |language=en}}</ref>
*''Maritime Discovery: A History of Nautical Discovery from the Earliest Times'' (1882, 2 vols.)<ref name="Allibone" />
*''Captain Cook's Three Voyages'' (1892)<ref name="Tucker2" />

===Biographies===
[[File:Frederick Sleigh Roberts.png|thumb|General Frederick Sleigh Roberts, illustration from Charles Rathbone Low's 1883 biography]]
*''Soldiers of the Victorian Age'' (1880, 2 vols.)<ref>{{cite book |last1=Low |first1=Charles Rathbone |title=Soldiers of the Victorian Age |date=1880|volume=I |publisher=Chapman |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v5tQAAAAYAAJ |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Low |first1=Charles Rathbone |title=Soldiers of the Victorian Age |date=1880|volume=II |publisher=Chapman |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5ptQAAAAYAAJ |language=en}}</ref>
*''Life and Correspondence of Field-Marshall Sir G. Pollock, Bart.'' (1873),<ref name="Allibone" /> on [[Sir George Pollock, 1st Baronet]].
*''A Memoir of Lieutenant-General Sir Garnet J. Wolseley'' (1878, 2 vols.),<ref name="Allibone" /> on [[Garnet Wolseley, 1st Viscount Wolseley]].
*''The Afghan War, 1838–1842; from the Journal and Correspondence of the Late Major-General Augustus Abbott'' (1879),<ref name="Allibone" /> on [[Augustus Abbott]].
*''Sir F. S. Roberts: A Memoir'' (1883)<ref name="Allibone" /> on [[Frederick Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts]]
*''Memoir of Major-General J. T. Boileau'' (1887), with preface by [[Henry Yule]]<ref>{{cite book |last1=Low |first1=Charles Rathbone |title=Memoir of Major-General J. T. Boileau ... With a Preface by Colonel H. Yule |date=1887 |publisher=London |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=blzxMgEACAAJ |language=en}}</ref>
*''Great African Travellers'', with [[William Henry Giles Kingston]]<ref name="IBD" /><ref>{{cite book |title=The Book Buyer |date=1891 |publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons |page=581|volume=VII |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RlhBu6YkaIwC&pg=PA581 |language=en}}</ref>

===Fiction===
*''Tales of Old Ocean'' (1869)<ref name="ACL">{{cite web |title=At the Circulating Library Author Information: Charles Rathbone Low |url=http://www.victorianresearch.org/atcl/show_author.php?aid=4207 |website=www.victorianresearch.org}}</ref>
*''The Adventures of Joshua Hawsepipe, Master Mariner: A Tale of the Sea and Land'' (1869)<ref name="ACL" />
*''Tales of Naval Adventure'' (1872)<ref name="ACL" />
*''The Letter of Marque and Tales of the Sea and Land'' (1873)<ref name="ACL" />
*''The Autobiography of a Man-o'-War's Bell: A Tale of the Sea'' (1875)<ref name="ACL" />
*''Cyril Hamilton: His Adventures by Sea and Land'' (1885)<ref name="ACL" />

===Poetry===
Tucker writes of Low's "fleet of 1890s epics".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Tucker |first1=Herbert F. |title=Epic: Britain's Heroic Muse 1790-1910 |date=2008 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-923299-4 |page=569 note 19 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0aMSDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA569 |language=en}}</ref>

*''Old England's Navy. An epic of the sea'' (1891)<ref name="Tucker">{{cite book |last1=Tucker |first1=Herbert F. |title=Epic: Britain's Heroic Muse 1790-1910 |date=2008 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-923299-4 |page=617|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0aMSDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA617 |language=en}}</ref>
*''Cressy to Tel-El-Kebir: A Narrative Poem, Descriptive of the Deeds of the British Army'' (1892)<ref>{{cite book |last1=Low |first1=Charles Rathbone |title=Cressy to Tel-El-Kebir: A Narrative Poem, Descriptive of the Deeds of the British Army |date=1892 |publisher=W. Mitchell & Company |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GqJAAQAAMAAJ |language=en}}</ref>
*''Britannia's Bulwarks: An historical poem descriptive of the deeds of the British Navy'' (1895)<ref name="Tucker" />
*''The Epic of Olympus: A Narrative Poem Descriptive of the Deeds of the Deities and Heroes of Greek Mythology'' (1897)<ref>{{cite book |last1=Low |first1=Charles Rathbone |title=The Epic of Olympus: A Narrative Poem Descriptive of the Deeds of the Deities and Heroes of Greek Mythology |date=1897 |publisher=Digby, Long & Company |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IKJAAQAAMAAJ |language=en}}</ref>

==Family==
Low married in 1861 Catherine Charlotte Boileau, daughter of [[John Theophilus Boileau]], and they had 13 children.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Cavendish |first1=Anne |title=Major General J. T. Boileau, F.R.S., R.E. |journal=Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research |date=1995 |volume=73 |issue=296 |page=230 |jstor=44230000 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44230000 |issn=0037-9700}}</ref><ref name="Foster">{{cite book |last1=Foster |first1=Joseph |title=The baronetage and knightage |date=1881 |publisher=Nichols and Sons |page=56 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uFE4AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA56 |language=en}}</ref> The children included sons Hamilton John Windsor Low and Gustavus Edward Boileau Low, and daughters Emily Elizabeth Wetherall, Jane, and Elizabeth Margaret Thorp.<ref name="Foster" />

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Low, Charles Rathbone}}
[[Category:1837 births]]
[[Category:1918 deaths]]
[[Category:British East India Company Marine personnel]]
[[Category:British historians]]
[[Category:British male novelists]]
[[Category:19th-century British novelists]]

Charles Rathbone Low - Revision history

Bot at 06:40, 15 April 2022