Private Douglas Lowery

Pte Douglas Lowery was the son of Thomas and Sarah Bell Lowery, of Bensham, Gateshead, Co Durham.

He served with No 17 Platoon, C Company, 1st Battalion Border Regiment (Airborne) and took part in the Battle of Arnhem, during Operation Market Garden.

Private Ager died on 24 September 1944. The precise circumstances of his death are not known and for a long time he had no known grave. However his body was subsequently recovered from the Van Lennepweg area where the men of C Company were fighting the Germans from foxholes.

On 8 October 1993, 14 veterans of 1 Border went to Oosterbeek to act as bearers and escorts at the funeral service for Pte Ernest Ager and Pte Douglas Lowery. Their remains had been found earlier in the year where they had fallen in action. The funeral was also attended by representatives of the King's Own Royal Border Regiment, the British Military Attache in the Hague, the Dutch Army, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, the Netherlands Grave Service, the Mayor of Oosterbeek, staff of the Airborne Museum Hartenstein and local people.

Pte Douglas Lowery died aged 21 years and is now buried in the Oosterbeek War Cemetery, Arnhem.

Further information about the 1st Battalion The Border Regiment is available in "When Dragons Flew: An illustrated history 1939-45" by Stuart Eastwood, Charles Gray and Alan Green. Silverlink publishing. ISBN 978-1-85794-349-8