William Watt Lowry 0-268619 Captain - US Army

William Watt Lowry was born on March 13, 1908 to Leslie Erwin and Annie Alice Lowry (nee Watt). They lived in Brooklyn, New York at the time. “Bill” was the eldest of 5 children. There is about 4 years between each of the children; Alice, Robert, Leslie and Richard.

The 1910 census records the family still living in Brooklyn, New York. His father was a clerk in a telegraph office. His maternal grandmother, Margaret lived with them as well.

Between 1910 and 1920 the family lived in Massachusetts and then Illinois. At the time of the 1920 census they lived at 1525 E 60th Street, Chicago, Illinois. What was an apartment building housing 4 families, is today a vacant lot. His father was a fire arms agent. Bill attended Hyde Park High School (Chicago) and it’s presumed that he graduated from there in 1926.

By 1930 two additional children Leslie & Richard, had joined the family. They were still living in Chicago and his father was a superintendent, fire and police force. Upon graduation from Lehigh University in 1930, he was commissioned as second lieutenant in the Infantry Officer Reserve Corps. He had competed 4 years work in military training in the Reserve Lehigh University Officer Training Corps as part of the curriculum. He also attended Michigan College of Mining and Technology and it was more than likely in Michigan where he met his future wife, Jean Foley.

Bill and Jean married on July 20, 1935 in Negaunee, Marquette, Michigan. By then he was living in Raco, Michigan and was employed as a land examiner. His new wife was employed as a stenographer. The following year the couple went to the Philippines where Bill found employment as a mining engineer. In April, 1938 a son, William was born in the Philippines.

For a time they moved back to the United States, as the 1940 census documents that the family lived in Gary, Indiana. They were living in a home with Bill’s relative....Dewey Watt. Bill worked as an engineer at one of the steel mills in Gary. Soon after the census was taken, they moved back to the Philippines.

Excerpts of an interview with Bill Jr. (now 85) from Golfshore Life Magazine (May 8, 2017, Naples, FL) best tells the rest of the story:

It was a time when the American mining business was struggling. Bill and his wife, Jean, and 2-year-old son, Billy, moved to a small island in the Philippines. There, Bill worked to extract gold, manganese and other precious minerals from the earth. Then war broke out. The family was stuck. Stacks of manganese lined the docks. The Japanese were coming for it.

One night, a loud knock came at the back door of their home. Bill opened it to find a friend—a Japanese businessman who had a warning: Get out. The military was coming. If they found Americans, they might kill them. The Lowry family went into the hills.

For two years they lived there in the humid jungles of the Negros islands. There was a bamboo hut on the edge of a cornfield where they stayed during the day. Shrouded deep in the vegetation was another hut. It was where they slept. Many other Americans lived in the jungles, and relied on each other for food, support, communication. Billy’s mother started The Victory News. It was a makeshift newspaper—one type-written page with information gleaned from a hidden short-wave radio. But it helped keep morale up among the Americans.

The elder Bill joined a band of guerillas and would be gone for long stretches of time. During the absences, Billy kept faith that his father would return safe to their jungle huts. But as time wore on, the chances of that happening slimmed. In late 1943, after the Lowry family spent two years in the jungle, the Americans were caught. Young Billy remembers the Japanese military discovering their hut; men in uniform crowded the small room. Then he remembers fire. Soldiers used flamethrowers to spit fire on their home. It went up in a magnificent and terrifying blaze.

Billy and his mother were shuttled among different jails and holding cells. His mother was interrogated for information on the guerillas. She refused to tell, and her punishments came in beatings. Eventually, she developed an infection on her leg. She thought it’d have to be amputated. But a Japanese surgeon came to the jail one day. He had been educated on the West Coast of the United States. In hindsight, Lowry thinks the doctor took pity on the mother with the young boy. He was able to remove the infection without amputating the leg. The only anesthetic was two swigs of whiskey.

Billy and his mother were shipped to Santo Tomas, a former university that had been turned into an internment camp. They were there with 4,000 other Brits and Americans. He slept in a former classroom filled with cots.

The boy always thought his father was alive. One day, mother and child were taken to meet a Mr. Lowry. He was in another camp. The boy got his hopes up. His mother told him otherwise. They arrived and indeed saw a Mr. Lowry—the boy’s uncle, who also worked in mining in the Philippines. He was glad to see his uncle. But he also realized that he would never see his father again.

The Americans finally came on February 3, 1945. The camp was liberated. A few days later, Gen. Douglas MacArthur arrived. Billy remembers the general vividly. Dark sunglasses and hat, crisp tan uniform. Over the weeks, the internees left the camp. Both Billy and his mother had to spend time in a hospital to recover from malnourishment.

The Americans went from military convoy to plane to ship. They sailed the Pacific back into San Francisco, Billy gazing up at the Golden Gate Bridge on a chilly day. They returned to Massachusetts, where his father’s parents lived.

Shortly after, they were finally able to put his father to rest. His body had been discovered in a grave-site on the island of Mindanao. He had died on June 4, 1943. The Army had commissioned him as a Captain and awarded him the Legion of Merit for his role in organizing the guerillas.

Captain William Watt Lowry was finally buried at Arlington National Cemetery August 16, 1950.

We offer our gratitude and respect to Captain Lowry, for his service to his fellow man and his country. May we never forget those who gave the ultimate price for our freedom.

"This story is part of the Stories behind the Stars project (see www.storiesbehindthestars.org). This is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 421,000 + of the US WWII fallen saved on Together We Served and Fold3. Can you write these stories? These stories will be accessible via a smartphone app at any war memorial or cemetery. If you noticed anything erroneous in this profile or have additional information to contribute to this story, please contact me at (nelsoncindy25@gmail.com)."

Resources:

William Watt Lowry - Facts (ancestry.com)

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/73238212/william-watt-lowry

https://www.newspapers.com/image/802839166/?terms=william%20watt%20lowry&match=1

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santo_Tomas_Internment_Camp#Notable_internees

The Boy, the Bullets and the Enemy - Gulfshore Life

Lowry, William Watt