Robert Lowry, Baron Lowry

Sir Robert Lynd Erskine Lowry, Baron Lowry PC (NI), often known as "Robbie Lowry", (30 January 1919 – 15 January 1999) was a Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland and a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary. [http://www.thepeerage.com/p19155.htm The peerage.com] ]

On 18 July 1979, in the early months of the Thatcher Government, he was created "Baron Lowry, of Crossgar in the County of Down".

Early life

His father was former Ulster Unionist Member of ParliamentODNB] and Attorney General for Northern Ireland William Lowry. His mother was niece of Sinn Féin activist, Robert Wilson Lynd."Obituary: Lord Lowry"; The Independent; 18 Jan 1999 ] He attended the Royal Belfast Academical Institution and Jesus College, Cambridge where he read Classics, achieving a double first.

Military

During the Second World War, he fought with the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers in Tunisia, followed by the Royal Irish Fusiliers before becoming a Major in 1945.

He has since held the title of Honorary Colonel for
*38th Irish Infantry Brigade - 5th Battalion and 7th Battalion
*Royal Irish Rangers- 5th (Volunteer) Battalion

Law

He was admitted to the Bar (Northern Ireland) in 1947. He was a High Court Judge (Northern Ireland) from 1964 until he became Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland in 1971. That year he was invested as a Northern Ireland Privy Counsellor.

Prior to the Northern Ireland (Emergency Provisions) Act 1973, Lowry excluded confessions made by IRA suspects in Army detention on the grounds that they were not made voluntarily. The introduction of the Act reduced the scope of what was inadmissible.

In 1975, Lowry was appointed by Merlyn Rees to chair the Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention, a process which led to the Sunningdale Agreement.

In 1977, John Hume challenged a regulation under the Special Powers Act which allowed any soldier to disperse an assembly of three or more people. Lowry held that the regulation was Ultra Vires under Section 4 of the Government of Ireland Act 1920 which forbade the Parliament of Northern Ireland to make laws in respect of the army.

He presided over some of the Diplock court cases. Lowry was became an IRA target, narrowly missing death on at least three occasions. In 1982, having just survived a hail of IRA bullets, he proceeded to give a planned lecture at Queen's University, Belfast.

He was an honorary Bencher King's Inns, Dublin and Middle Temple and he was a Law Lord.

Personal life

Lord Lowry married twice;
*Mary Martin (d. 1987), in 1948, with whom he had three daughters (Sheila, Anne and Margaret).
*Barbra Calvert, Lady Lowry QC, in 1994 (daughter of Albert Parker CBE).

References