William Henry Lowe (30 August 1831 – 30 July 1862), was a British district magistrate and collector of the district of Bulandshahr, during

British rule of India The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent; * * it is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or Direct rule in India, * Quote: "Mill, who was himsel ...

. He led the funding of the construction of the

All Saints Church All Saints Church, or All Saints' Church or variations on the name may refer to: Albania *All Saints' Church, Himarë Australia * All Saints Church, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory * All Saints Anglican Church, Henley Brook, Western Aust ...

in Bulandshahr. The Lowe memorial building by the district magistrate's court in Bulandshahr was named for him.

Early life and family

William Lowe was born on 30 August 1831 in Calcutta, to John Lowe. He married a daughter of

Sir William Muir Sir William Muir (27 April 1819 – 11 July 1905) was a Scottish Orientalist, and colonial administrator, Principal of the University of Edinburgh and Lieutenant Governor of the North-West Provinces of British India. Life He was born at Gl ...

. They had a son, William Henry Muir Lowe. Elizabeth Huntley was his only daughter.

Career

Lowe succeeded George Hamilton Freeling as district magistrate and collector for Bulandshahr. In that role he led the funding of the construction of a church on the far west side of Bulandshahr. It was completed in 1864 and later described by the subsequent collector F. S. Growse as a "pretty little building" with the caretakers accommodation as a "practical joke".

Wolf child

The feral child

Dina Sanichar Dina Sanichar (1860 or 1861–1895) was a feral boy. A group of hunters discovered him among wolves in a cave in Bulandshahr, Uttar Pradesh, India in February 1867, at the age of around six. Sanichar was sent to the Secundra orphanage at ...

, may have been the inspiration for the character

Mowgli Mowgli () is a fictional character and the protagonist of Rudyard Kipling's ''The Jungle Book'' stories. He is a feral boy from the Pench area in Seoni, Madhya Pradesh, India, who originally appeared in Kipling's short story "In the Rukh" (co ...

in ''

The Jungle Book ''The Jungle Book'' (1894) is a collection of stories by the English author Rudyard Kipling. Most of the characters are animals such as Shere Khan the tiger and Baloo the bear, though a principal character is the boy or "man-cub" Mowgli, ...

'' by Rudyard Kipling. The traditional story has been that the boy was brought to the attention of Bulandshahr's district magistrate after hunters discovered the child in a cave in the district of Bulandshahr. This magistrate has been cited as being Lowe. However, Lowe had died five years earlier. A letter from W. F. Prideaux to the editor of the ''North British Advertiser and Ladies Journal'' (1885) questioned the authenticity of 'wolf boys' in general, and of particularly the one at the "orphanage at Secundra, near Agra". Prideaux requested the name of the magistrate and further details of the wolf boy. In response, the orphanage replied that the boy came to them in 1867 after being found by William Lowe, then collector of Bulandshahr". Prideaux noted that no official report on the story existed, and the year and Officer's name was given from a recollection sufficiently long after to question its accuracy.

Death and legacy

Lowe died on 30 July 1862, a day before a planned move to England. He is buried in the chancel of Bulandshahr's

, which had been commissioned by his widow. The Lowe memorial building by the district magistrate's court, acting as a shelter for those attending the courts, was named for him. The inscription read;

This building has been erected by the Europeans and native-official and non-official residents of the station and district as a token of their respect and esteem, and as a memorial of the late William Henry Lowe, Esquire, who died while collector of this district on the 30th of July 1862, AD.

File:All Saints Church, Bulandshahr.jpg, All Saints Church, Bulandshahr File:William Henry Lowe memorial plaque.jpg, Memorial plaque inside All saints church File:William Henry Lowe (d.1862) grave.jpg, Lowe's grave in the chancel of the church

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lowe, William 1831 births 1862 deaths 19th-century British civil servants Indian Civil Service (British India) officers People from Kolkata

Early life and family

Career

Wolf child

Death and legacy

See also

References