Arthur Lowe
Former RAF engineer, Arthur Lowe was brought up in Canada, but when his mother brought the family back to the UK in 1938, he saw the chance to realise a dream. Together with his brother, Arthur joined the Royal Air Force. Both served as aircraft engineers and were in great demand when war broke out.
After completing his training, he spent two years with the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy, and a short period on flying boats. Arthur was then sent to the Middle East, where his job was to rebuild aircraft that had crashed so that they could take to the skies once more. It was demanding work in more ways than one. "It started off as a seven day week. Then we got half a day off because the conditions we were serving in were so bad," Arthur remembers.
Arthur was then moved to an island just off Burma, where he worked with 62 squadron, dropping supplies for land troops. When Japan surrendered on VJ Day, Arthur was still in Burma. He was selected to fly with Group Captain Grandee, who went on to become the Marshall of the RAF. Their job was to collect the surrenders of all the Japanese generals in Burma.
Afterwards, he dropped leaflets publicising the surrender and, despite the difficulties and hardship, Arthur retains good memories of that time. "It was damned hard work - not the modern idea of hard work; I'm talking about being dragged out of bed at two in the morning and not getting back to bed until two the next morning. But there was always somebody who came up with the jokes."
Later in life, Arthur's health began to suffer as a direct result of the time he spent in service. Dysentery and dengue fever took their toll and, eventually, Arthur lost his sight completely. That's when he became a St Dunstaner, which, like the RAF, has proved to be an organisation Arthur has been proud to be a part of.
"Thank God for them," he says, "They're marvellous, they really are. I can't think of anything better organised - you can't tell me any organisation in Britain that is as good as St Dunstan's is to its blind members."
