OBITUARIES
Margaret Joan Lowe (Kirkwood 1950) 24 November 1932 - 21 November 2020 Margaret’s parents were Archibald Kirkwood DCM, a Scottish civil engineer and WWI veteran, and Elsie Maisey, who was Anglo-Irish and had been raised on St Helena in the South Atlantic and, later, Gibraltar. They made their home at 81 St Leonard’s Avenue, West Leederville, and Margaret, their only child, was born in 1932. After the bombing of Darwin on 19 February 1942, and of Broome a fortnight later, Margaret was among many children evacuated from Perth. She was sent to Merredin where she was billeted with Winifred and Newton Winton, who ran the No: 4 Pumping Station on the pipeline. She remembered it was a great year, during which she attended Merredin State School and enjoyed regular visits from her father as he continued his work, now as chief superintendent of the Goldfields Water Supply Scheme. Returning to West Leederville in 1943, Margaret, aged 11, then won a scholarship to start at PLC in 1944. During her seven years at PLC she forged many extremely close, lifelong friendships, found her intellectual interests were stimulated and her pursuits encouraged. She also loved playing tennis and learning to play hockey, and was a Prefect in her final year of 1950.
950 Leavers in their Junior Year, 1948 Back, Left to right: Dee Schorer, Jeanette Rodda, Philippa Haesler Middle: Dawn Reid, Helen Andrew, Joan Hiller, Joan Wallace Front: Bettine Birdseye, Margaret Kirkwood, Jennifer Ledger Very front: Joan Rawll.
40 Blackwatch 2021 Edition One
Keenly intelligent, Margaret went on to graduate in Arts (Hons) from the University of Western Australia and began her Masters in Agricultural Economics. A difficult relationship with her supervisor curtailed her Masters’ study and, in mid-1956, she embarked on a wonderful, thoroughly enjoyable, 18-month trip to the UK. When not visiting relatives and sightseeing, she worked as a field research officer in Cambridge, interviewing and collecting data from local farmers. Returning to Perth in 1958, Margaret worked as an economist at Wesfarmers but after her adventures in the UK, she found Perth a little too small and isolated, and soon took up a position with the Bureau of Agricultural Economics in Canberra. There, she met public servant James Lowe who, after witnessing several of Margaret’s previous beaux being knocked back, devised a plan which never risked him making a direct proposal, instead referring to ‘when we’re married’. He was delighted it worked, and they were married at St George’s Cathedral, in Perth, in 1962.
ABOVE TOP: Newly engaged James Lowe and Margaret Kirkwood, 1962. Courtesy the Lowe family. ABOVE: Margaret and James Lowe, on their final big adventure, 2006. Courtesy the Lowe family.
In 1979 Margaret, James and the boys spent five wonderful months in the UK reconnecting with friends and family and revisiting the places Margaret loved so much. On their return in 1980 Margaret became a scientific editor at CSIRO for the Division of Water and Land Resources. She loved the work, and the people, and retired in 1994, aged 62. She and James then further indulged their love of travel, overseas and locally, including a 2006 circumnavigation of Australia.
In 1964 they bought land in Hughes, one of the first suburbs developed outside central Canberra, on which they built their own home. In mid-1965 though, just as they had their home and garden as they wanted, James accepted an 18-month secondment to Melbourne where their first child, Michael, was born in February 1966.
After James suffered a stroke in late 2006 Margaret stayed closer to home, but still attended exhibitions and shows, enjoyed her Scottish country dancing, catching up with friends, and pottering in her garden. James died in 2011, after which her travel further affield resumed - to New Zealand, Vietnam and Japan. Despite the distance, Margaret also kept in close contact with her WA friends and classmates, and frequently returned to Perth for reunions. Were it not for Covid, she would’ve been here in August 2020 for her year’s 70th reunion.
They returned to their Hughes home later that year and, as Michael got a little older, Margaret picked up occasional research assistant/editorial work through the Australian National University and Bureau of Agricultural Economics.
In 2012 she wrote to us, “I always look back on my time at PLC as most important. It gave us a great base on which to develop - both academically, and in our approach to life. Some of my dearest friends all come from those days.”
Their second son, Duncan, was born in April 1970 and Margaret, who had always wanted two boys, was delighted. In time, she returned to casual work with the CSIRO but on weekends they all enjoyed bushwalking, picnics and lunches by the lake.
On Friday 20 November 2020, after a routine visit to her doctor’s, she began to feel unwell. Sadly, she collapsed at home the next day, and died with her son Michael beside her, three days before her 88th birthday. With thanks to Ian Stimson (OSC 19481953), Michael and Duncan Lowe.
