Francis Gordon LOWE

Francis Gordon Lowe was the eldest of the two sons of the Birmingham MP and solicitor Sir Francis Lowe, the First Baronet Lowe, of Edgbaston, and on his father’s death in 1929 he became the second Baronet. Known by his second forename of Gordon, his brother Arthur was also a top-class tennis player and fellow Olympian. The two siblings played together in the men’s doubles at the 1912 Games. Gordon appeared in both the 1912 and 1920 Olympics but failed to win a medal. His best performance was in 1912 when he finished fourth in the indoor singles after losing in four sets to New Zealand’s Tony Wilding in the bronze medal match. Gordon was educated at Charterhouse and then graduated from Cambridge in 1905 with a BA . The following year he appeared for the first time at Wimbledon. He twice reached the men’s singles semi-final, in 1911 and 1923, and with his brother, twice reached the All-comers’ final in the men’s doubles. In 1910 Gordon won the singles title at the British Covered Court Championship at Queen's Club by defeating brother Arthur 6-4, 6-0, 6-1 in the final. He also won the Queen’s Club tournament three times, in 1912, 1913 and 1925, and was the last Briton to win it three times before Andy Murray in 2013.

Lowe won more than 50 tournaments in Britain and around the world in a 25-year career, including the World Covered Court championship at Queen’s in 1920, three Monte Carlo titles in four years 1920-23 and he won six out of eight Davis Cup singles matches in three tournaments between 1921 and 1926. However, his best performance was in winning the men’s singles at the 1915 Australasian Championship (now the Australian Open) when he beat the home favourite Horace Rice in four sets after losing the first set 6-4. Gordon served with the Indian Army in Mesopotamia between 1916-19 and was mentioned in dispatches. He was a fine journalist and was the proprietor of Gordon Lowe Sports and he published his own lawn tennis annual in the 1930s.