arthur lowe yacht amazon

Name Amazon

Previous names

• 1885 - 1897 Amazon
• 1897 - 1900 Armoricain

Construction

AMAZON's provenance is highly significant in explaining her survival today as possible the last remaining, ocean-going Victorian wooden screw schooner, particularly as her hull is still largely original. She has not had a 'restoration'.

She was designed by Dixon Kemp as a screw schooner (a propeller-driven power yacht with sails). Although of a size to undertake ocean voyages, she was intended for use only in the English Channel, where there was no shortage of coaling ports and so she did not require extended endurance at sea. Dixon Kemp notes: "As she was not required to carry a large quantity of coal for long passages, advantage of this was taken to keep the displacement as small as possible, and the lines, both fore and aft, as fine as seemed desirable. The machinery was placed amidships, and this admitted of a better run than can often be had: the afterbody, in fact, being almost identical with the forebody." AMAZON was built by Tankerville Chamberlayne, at his own private yacht yard, which had been created in the 1840s by his father (Thomas Chamberlayne, who died in 1876) to maintain the family's racing cutter, the famous ARROW. Tankerville Chamberlayne shared his father's love of yachting and continued to race in ARROW after 1876. He maintained her in racing trim with some success; in 1882, for example, she won 11 prizes from 16 starts, despite being some 61 years old.

AMAZON represents the pinnacle of Tankerville Charmberlayne's private yacht building success; he personally superintended her build, evidently took considerable pride in her and no expense or trouble was spared to make her as good as she could possibly be as his own family's yacht. While AMAZON would be available to accompany ARROW to sailing regattas if required, she would also allow independent family cruising in comfort under power and did so. AMAZON's sea trials were detailed in Dixon Kemp's 'Yacht Architecture', first published in 1885, where he recorded that the speed trials were achieved with a max 125hp. She was fitted with owners accommodation for two gentlemen (in individual staterooms) together with a twin 'ladies' cabin for two. AMAZON remained in Tankerville Chamberlayne's ownership until 1897, having been used in British and French waters. That year she was present at Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee Royal Fleet Review. She was then sold to M. Henri Dubois, Commodore of the Yacht Club Dinard, registered in France and renamed ARMORICAIN.

She returned to the British flag in 1900, where she has remained since. AMAZON was too old-fashioned and would have presented too much of a logistical challenge (with her relatively small coal bunkers) for naval service in the First World War. AMAZON had the very good fortune (and sufficiently wealthy owners) to survive the general cull of steam yachts that accompanied the rise of the motor yacht, the shortage of manpower after the First World War and the effects of the Great Depression. She was certainly remarkable for remaining in steam and active with her original boiler and engine until 1937, when she was some 52 years old. By 1938 she had been refitted with a new oil engine and was moored in Chelsea Reach, London. The Second World War saw AMAZON sacrifice her bronze propeller and 6 inch diameter bronze propeller shaft to the war effort and she became a dumb houseboat at Chiswick. She was very lucky to receive only slight damage from the German V-1 rocket that fell on Cubitt's Yacht Basin and destroyed the motor yacht HALCYON. She remained static at Chiswick until 1968, when she was sold as a houseboat to the actor Arthur Lowe and his wife. Her copper sheathing had preserved the bottom from damage, although the edge of her rudder, where the copper had worn, had been nibbled by gribble.

She was some 83 years old in 1968, but the surveyor's positive report that she was 'in remarkable condition for her age' stimulated Arthur Lowe's heartfelt desire to make her a seagoing yacht again. This was a considerable objective and was achieved in 1971. She was then used as a convenient base and accommodation while Arthur Lowe acted at theatres along the English south coast. AMAZON also undertook some television work and even made an appearance in the Onedin Line in 1979, appropriately playing the part of a steam yacht called AMAZON. Following Arthur Lowe's death in 1982, the yacht was operated for some years by Stephen, his son, as a charter vessel.

By the 1990s however, she was laying in the north of Scotland and had been on sale for several years. It was clear to her new owners that she would need some repair to her counter stern, together with very comprehensive replacement of equipment, systems and tanks. AMAZON was therefore prepared and equipped for sea and made a successful passage in the spring of 1997 from Buckie Shipyard, where she had been inspected, through the Caledonian Canal and from Fort William via Falmouth, and Gibraltar to Malta.

Based at Malta since 1997, AMAZON has undergone necessary repairs, systems overhaul and comprehensive equipment replacement. In 1999 her bottom was stripped and cleaned off, re-caulked and re-coppered. A continuous heavy duty marine diesel engine was fitted. Departing Malta in early 2009, AMAZON undertook a trans-Atlantic passage via Gibralta, the Canary Islands, the Cape Verde Islands and Barbados, continue to St Vincent and the Grenadines, Antigua and Barbuda, Bermuda and the USA; she was 124 years old. In 2011, she made her return trans-Atlantic passage from the USA and via Halifax, Nova Scotia and St John's, Newfoundland, to Ireland.

AMAZON has the distinctly unique privilege of having been present for both the 1897 and the 2012 Diamond Jubilee maritime festivities.

This vessel is a survivor from the First World War. You can read more about her wartime history by visiting our First World War: Britain's Surviving Vessels website www.ww1britainssurvivingvessels.org.uk . 

Significance

1.      What is the vessel’s ability to demonstrate history in her physical fabric?

Evidence for designs, functions, techniques, processes, styles, customs and habits or uses and associations in relation to events and people.  How early, intact or rare these features are may impact on significance.

AMAZON's is one of the last remaining, ocean-going Victorian wooden screw schooners. Her hull, of carvel timber construction with wrought iron, bronze bolted strap floors, is still largely original, with only minor reconstruction work carried out. She is built of pine on oak frames, and she has an elm keel and teak planking. She is copper sheathed, with the sheathing having been replaced in 1999. She has two masts and is schooner-rigged with timber spars. Her masts and funnel are lowerable. A number of deckhouses were added and then removed during the twentieth century. AMAZON has not been subject to any major conservation work, although repairs have been made to the counter stern. Her original boiler and steam engine were removed in 1937, and a Kelvin R6 120bhp diesel engine installed. This was later replaced by a Ford 6 cylinder 120bhp diesel engine.

2.      What are the vessel’s associational links for which there is no physical evidence?

Associations with people or places.  Off-ship research.

AMAZON was designed by renowned designer Dixon Kemp who makes reference to her in his published works 'Yacht Architecture' which includes details of her sea trials and also in 'Manual of Yacht and Boat Sailing'. She is believed to be one of only two of Dixon Kemp’s seagoing designs remaining and the sole surviving power vessel of his design. She was built by Tankerville Chamberlayne Esq, a member of a major local land-owning family and MP for Southampton, in his private yard in Southampton. She reflects the Victorian class system, with many of the men who built her being tenants on Chamberlayne land. AMAZON was a regular attendee at South Coast regattas and was used as Committee boat by the Royal Southampton Yacht Club. She is believed to have attended the Royal Fleet Review in 1897 held to mark Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee. AMAZON may have been one of many thousands of yachts requisitioned for war service by the Admiralty at the start of the First World War. She became known in the French yachting press when owned by M. Henri Dubois, Commodore of the Dinard Yacht Club. She was later owned by Dad’s Army actor Arthur Lowe, from 1968 until his death in 1982. AMAZON has the unique privilege of having been present not only at the 1897 Fleet Review but also the 2012 Jubilee maritime festivities marking the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II.  In recent years, she has cruised extensively, spending time in US waters where she became an exhibit at Mystic Seaport Museum.

3.      How does the vessel’s shape or form combine and contribute to her function?

Overall aesthetic impact of the vessel, her lines, material she was built from and her setting.  Does she remain in her working environment?

AMAZON is an elegant and aesthetically pleasing vessel, with a clipper bow and a counter stern. She is a distinctive vessel with her slanting funnel and gentle sheer, and her white painted hull. Her accommodation is representative of the class system in late Victorian Britain, with two comfortable single staterooms for the gentlemen and a separate ‘ladies cabin’. The eight crew members lived in tiny quarters at the stern of the vessel. AMAZON is now in private hands and is used operationally for long-term cruising. She is based in the Channel Islands.

Source: NHS-UK team, 26 August 2015. 

This statement was developed as part of the Heritage Lottery funded First World War project. http://www.ww1britainssurvivingvessels.org.uk/

• 1885 Vessel built by Tankerville Chamberlayne, Southampton
• 1897 Present at Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee Royal Fleet Review.
• 1900 Returned to British register and re-named AMAZON
• 1897 Sold to France and re-named ARMORICAIN
• 1937-8 Vessel refitted with a new oil engine and was moored in Chelsea Reach, London
• 1944 Slightly damaged by the V-1 'doodlebug' flying bomb that destroyed HALCYON at Cubitt's Yacht Basin, Chiswick.
• 1968 Sold as a houseboat to actor Arthur Lowe
• 1971 Resumed sea-going service
• 1979 Appeared in the BBC television drama The Onedin Line
• 1997 Sailed from Buckie Shipyard to Malta
• 1999 Kelvin marine diesel engine fitted
• 2009 Trans-Atlantic passage from Malta via Gibraltar, Canaries, Cape Verdes to Barbados
• 2011 Return trans-Atlantic passage from the USA via Halifax, Nova Scotia and St John's, Newfoundland, to Ireland.
• 2012 Present at Queen Elizabeth II's Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant.

Kemp, Dixon, Manual of Yacht and Boat Sailing,  pp21, Fifth Edition, 1886  Kemp, Dixon, Yacht Architecture,  1885  Dear, Ian, Classic Boat :  Yachting's Greatest Authority,  pp26-31, March 2000  ( Lloyds Register of Yachts,  1885

Own this vessel?

If you are the owner of this vessel and would like to provide more details or updated information, please contact [email protected]

More like this

Night Breeze

Registered, built 1972 by middleton, norman, bristol.

Archived, built 1917 by Gebr van Diepen, Waterhuizen, Netherlands

Comus of Wivenhoe

Registered, built 1882 by husk & sons, james, wivenhoe.

Spirit of Falmouth

Replica, built 1984 by unknown.

National Historic Ships UK acknowledges the financial support of its sponsors

• The Registers
• Shipshape Network

UK Edition Change

• UK Politics
• News Videos
• Paris 2024 Olympics
• Rugby Union
• Sport Videos
• John Rentoul
• Mary Dejevsky
• Andrew Grice
• Sean O’Grady
• Photography
• Theatre & Dance
• Culture Videos
• Food & Drink
• Health & Families
• Royal Family
• Electric Vehicles
• Lifestyle Videos
• UK Hotel Reviews
• News & Advice
• Simon Calder
• Australia & New Zealand
• South America
• C. America & Caribbean
• Middle East
• Politics Explained
• News Analysis
• Today’s Edition
• Home & Garden
• Fashion & Beauty
• Travel & Outdoors
• Sports & Fitness
• Sustainable Living
• Climate Videos
• Behind The Headlines
• On The Ground
• Decomplicated
• You Ask The Questions
• Binge Watch
• Travel Smart
• Watch on your TV
• Crosswords & Puzzles
• Most Commented
• Newsletters
• Ask Me Anything
• Virtual Events
• Betting Sites
• Online Casinos
• Wine Offers

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in Please refresh your browser to be logged in

Dad's Navy: As Captain Mainwaring, he entertained millions with his pomposity and his delusions of grandeur. But the real Arthur Lowe fancied himself as a different sort of captain

Article bookmarked.

Find your bookmarks in your Independent Premium section, under my profile

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails

Sign up to our free breaking news emails, thanks for signing up to the breaking news email.

MAIDA AVENUE, Little Venice, top end, is in a bit of a stir this Sunday morning. An event; celebrities. Passers-by who have stopped to stare at half-familiar faces quiz the people in the anoraks with the strange looks and autograph books, then smile and nod. This is where Arthur Lowe used to live, you know, Captain Mainwaring in Dad's Army, they're unveiling one of those plaques to him.

Ah, yes, Dad's Army: the BBC comedy about the wartime Home Guard, made in the late Sixties and Seventies, repeated most years, still commanding audiences of around 10 million. Children love it, parrot the catchphrases; watch glued as the captain, a small, portly, bespectacled bank manager, desperately deploys his platoon - butcher, undertaker, bank clerks, spiv, retiree with bladder problem - in defence of a small town on the south coast. They are untrained, ill-equipped and wondrously incompetent.

Mainwaring is deliciously pompous, inevitably punctured, but always defiant: for, amid the farce, there is an absolute refusal to bow the knee to something wrong, whatever the odds, which gives it a dignity beyond simple sitcomedy. You might care to see Captain Mainwaring and Dad's Army as speaking important truths about England and the English, then and now; alternatively, you can just laugh.

Clive Dunn, who played Corporal Jones, the butcher, is inside Arthur Lowe's old flat, waiting for the unveiling. Now, at 75, looking the way he used to be made up, he has come to London from his home in Portugal for the do. Ian Lavender, who was Private Pike, the 'stupid boy' always wrapped up well by his mum, will be here soon, as will Bill Pertwee, ARP Warden Hodges, Mainwaring's chief tormentor. Most of the rest of the cast are, like Lowe, dead. The flat, now all white paint and bare boards, is owned by a man who works at Virgin Records. But, yes, he's a fan: 'It's so untrendy it's trendy.'

Quite a crowd now. The event is being organised by The Dead Comics Society, one of those curious showbizzy organisations where Variety meets Charity, loudly. Plaques have already gone up to Hancock and Sellers and others. Fans pay pounds 25 a year to join and a minimum contribution of pounds 35 for an after-plaque lunch, where they can bid in a 'celebrity memorabilia' auction and mix with Lorraine Chase and Nicholas Parsons. But before that, another wall, in Baron's Court, at the old home of John Le Mesurier, the farceur and louche who played the languid, toffish sergeant to Lowe's counter-jumping captain, where Norman Wisdom and other dead comics in rehearsal are waiting.

WOULD ARTHUR have enjoyed it, the just-a-little-tacky razzmatazz, the auction where a signed photo of Jonathan Ross, Terry Scott and John Inman went for pounds 150? 'He would have made a speech, he loved all that,' said Clive Dunn. 'Then, in an aside, he would have said 'Variety People'.' Dunn used the Lowe Mainwaring voice for this, the one on which all Lowe anecdotes depend, a sort of Surrey version of WC Fields. David Croft, who wrote the series with Jimmy Perry, said he rehearsed his speeches in the bath. Croft remembered going round to Maida Avenue to discuss the stage version of Dad's Army with Lowe. 'He said, 'Care for a drink, David?' I asked for a vodka-and-tonic. 'Haven't any vodka. Russian stuff.' So I asked for a gin-and-tonic. There was no lemon: 'Joan (his wife) hasn't been marketing today. Have you tried cucumber?' '

A lot of Lowe stories have to do with drink, food and a reluctance to learn scripts in his own time ('I'm not having that rubbish in my home'). At Thetford, where Dad's Army did its filming, Lowe was legendary for his insistence on weak tea, and his interrogations about the quality of kipper and provenance of ham: 'Is the ham on the bone?' With Perry in a restaurant: 'Those people are drinking Matoos Rose, James. Are they insane?' After a performance of the stage show, after falling asleep in the soup: 'The mulligatawny in this place is not what it was.' Backstage at the Palladium during a Royal Command Performance, standing by a Kwa Zulu dancer with a baby at her breast: 'Likes a drink, does he?'

Where the true Lowe lies in all this is difficult to tell. He enjoyed both actor-manager and Mainwaring personae, and Croft and Perry made increasing use of his mannerisms and tics in drawing the captain's character. He also had the eccentric's gift for unselfconscious self-parody, viz the mulligatawny soup. His service revolver as Mainwaring was in fact a Roy Rogers plastic special because he didn't like the weight of the real thing.

Ian Lavender remembers seeing the Lowes going up to bed in Norfolk carrying two rosebushes, a hosepipe and a bottle of Guinness.

AND THEN, of course, there was the boat. Lowe bought the Amazon in 1968 for pounds 2,000. It was a 114ft Victorian steam yacht, sans its steam and sans just about everything else, lying neglected in a Chiswick boat-yard. Lowe had just started making Dad's Army, having finally left Coronation Street, where he had made his name as Leonard Swindley, the draper, two years before. Lowe put tens of thousands into restoring the Amazon. He planned to retire on to it, and meanwhile had it berthed at Teddington or moored at seaside towns such as St Helier, in Jersey, or Shanklin, Isle of Wight, while performing in summer shows he had taken for the purpose.

Plans would be pored over in rehearsal rooms, invitations issued. Lowe did not sail it himself, but used a professional crew, or his son, Stephen, who had gone into the merchant navy. He did, however, affect a natty captain's hat and blazer, and a competent manner. 'There was a lot of looking over the side,' says Croft. Drinks would be served on a silver salver to music from the harmonium installed by Joan Lowe.

Ask Peter O'Toole, a great admirer, about the boat, and there is a roar down the phone about Lowe 'driving up and down the bloody Thames in this dirty great boat with people playing the organ. A boat with an organ] We used to call him Admiral Bligh. Arthur was a throwback to the old and proper days, larger than life. Life has become terribly small and mediocre, hasn't it?'

Bill Pertwee was invited on board at Teddington for a drink. 'Suddenly, Arthur shouted to the crew: 'Weigh anchor]' We then moved all of 50 yards down the river. 'Did you see that snotty boy picking his nose and fishing?' said Arthur. 'I'm not sitting on my yacht and watching that.' '

At Shanklin, Arthur's stately repair to the Amazon after his performance and a good supper became something of a tourist attraction; but he was never entirely happy with the attention of fans. At Ramsgate, where John and Joan Le Mesurier had a house and where the Amazon was moored for a couple of summers, one persistent couple onshore kept up a lengthy barrage of ' 'Ere, Arthur, Captain Mainwaring, don't panic]' studiously ignored by Lowe as he polished his brasses. Eventually, one of them shouted, 'Next time you're on, I'm switching you off]' Little wonder, then, at Preston station, when smiling fans peered into the dining-car as the Dad's Army team made its way north to turn on the lights at Blackpool, that Lowe should rap the window and bark: 'Clear off]'

LOWE was an unlikely sea dog. He was born in Hayfield, Derbyshire. His father was a railway worker and local character. The family had a history in service; Lowe always liked playing butlers. He tried to join the merchant navy before the war, but his eyesight wasn't up to it. In 1938, he enlisted in the Duke of Lancaster's Own Yeomanry and spent much of the war in North Africa, ending up a warrant officer. In the accustomed fashion, he acted in the Army and continued after demob, joining the Frank H Fortescue Company at the Hulme Hippodrome, Manchester, where he met his wife, Joan Cooper, then the leading lady; she later played Dolly, sister of Private Godfrey (the one with the bladder, Arnold Ridley, farceur, author of The Ghost Train).

After three years in rep, Lowe arrived in London. You will see him as a splendidly reptilian journalist at the end of Kind Hearts and Coronets. Many early West End roles were, improbably, in musicals like Call Me Madam or Pal Joey. Wider fame came with Coronation Street and Leonard Swindley of Gamma Garments, chairman of the Glad Tidings Mission Hall, would-be local politician, would-be theatrical producer, would-be husband of his assistant, Miss Nugent, still there as Emily Bishop. Eileen Derbyshire, who plays Emily, might recall Lowe as 'a lovely man' and talk about the early team spirit in Coronation Street, but he seems not to have reciprocated. In the only interview he gave worth reading, with Lynda Lee-Potter in 1969, he said: 'I loathe and detest being called Mr Swindley. The public are so stupid. If they've seen you on television they seem to think in some extraordinary way that they have some right to talk to you, that you belong to them.

'In fact, I only worked six months a year on Coronation Street. I insisted on it. The rest of the cast were quite different. They were bought body and soul. They were puppets on the ends of strings. I wanted always to be free to do other things . . . '

Lowe doubled Swindley, equally improbably, with the Royal Court, playing the elder partner and the judge in the first production of Osborne's Inadmissible Evidence. Lindsay Anderson thought Lowe gave the play 'a bite, an acidity, an edge that I shouldn't think it has ever had again'. Anderson was such an admirer of 'Arthur's Edge' that, after Lowe's performance in This Sporting Life, 'I knew I never wanted to make a film without Arthur in it', casting him in every film he made in this country, including If . . . and O Lucky Man.

O'Toole starred with Lowe and Alastair Sim in The Ruling Class: 'He was one of the most subtle, broadly ranged actors we've ever had. Playing between Arthur Lowe and Alastair Sim was like having someone pissing on my grave.'

But Mainwaring looms over all, smothering memory of other series and roles: Stephano at the National, for example, or his fine Micawber for the BBC.

After Mainwaring, too, Lowe spent a lot of time on tour in some pretty creaky vehicles - Laburnum Grove, Caught Napping, Home At Seven. Why? Well, Lowe, they say, was 'an old pro': he liked touring, leading a company. And then there was the boat, and his wife: Joan still liked to act, and appeared with him. He seemed content; there was no sense of a twilight, or waste. Nor perhaps should there be: according to O'Toole, Dad's Army used to be required watching for students at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.

Lowe died in 1982. He collapsed from a stroke in his dressing-room at the Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham, less than an hour before curtain up on Home At Seven. Joan and the show, of course, went on without him. He died early the next day, aged 66. Joan died five years later.

AND THE Amazon? That's up at Clachnaharry now, on the Caledonian Canal, near Inverness. Stephen Lowe runs it as a museum ship. It is a thing of fine lines, dark mahogany, and solid Victorian tubbiness. It was built in the famous Arrow Yard in Southampton in 1885 and is the oldest wooden steam yacht in the country. There are Joan's harmonium, the dressing table and bed made from panelling Arthur spied in a skip outside the Buckstone Club, and the semi-circle cut out of the bar to accommodate Arthur's tummy and allow Joan to pass behind him. Stephen chartered it out and ran it as a restaurant until the recession hit. He and his wife brought it up to Buckie to fix a new propeller shaft, and stayed.

It looks a little lost and lonely on the canal. Trade has not been good, and Stephen has put it up for sale. Was pounds 285,000, now pounds 185,000, one nibble. Stephen thinks he might bring the Amazon back south. A reserved man, he is not entirely at ease with the Arthur anecdotes, preferring to remember an unflamboyant, hard-working, private man 'miles away from Mainwaring', with a tinge of melancholy about him. He's thought of writing a biography of Lowe, 'but I'm afraid it would be a bit boring, because there isn't all that much to write'.

In Surrey, though, Tony and Leslie Keen are thinking about a book. They have a Lowe archive, sold off by Lowe's stepson, David, Joan's son by her first marriage, some years ago. There are programmes going back to the Hulme Hippodrome, fan letters, photos, press cuttings, and the notebooks in which over the years Lowe recorded each engagement, from Murder at the Ministry in Palmer's Green to a voice-over for Tetley tea-bags. They are a little sad, these stub ends of an actor's life, the strutting and fretting over and done. Back at the auction, meanwhile, the bidding goes on for other small hem-touching tokens of lost Variety lives, Lowe and Richard 'Stinker' Murdoch in a Schweppes ad, a tape of Kenneth Williams's last voice-over, a photo of Peter Sellers and Irene Handl.

THE WOMAN who helps Stephen Lowe on board the Amazon up in Scotland claims second sight. She says she has seen the little dog of a previous owner; and she says she has seen Arthur. It is a good thought, a small, round ghost there, looking over the side, making himself busy, up on the bridge, pouring a gin, adding a cucumber. Much better than a theatre to haunt.

(Photographs omitted)

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article

Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.

New to The Independent?

Or if you would prefer:

Want an ad-free experience?

Hi {{indy.fullName}}

• My Independent Premium
• Account details
• Help centre

• Buy a Classic Boat
• Print Subscription
• Digital Subscription
• Single Issues

Your special offer

The Lifeboat Station Project

Jack Lowe and boats go back a long way.

Jack, a photographer, spent much of his early childhood on the classic yacht Amazon which  was owned first by his grandfather, Dad’s Army actor Arthur Lowe, and then his father Stephen.    

The 1885 steamer, the only vessel to appear in both Queen’s Pageants on the Thames, was built at the Arrow Yard in Southampton to a Dixon Kemp design of teak and pitch pine on oak frames with bronze fastenings.

 J ack remembers time spent on the 114ft classic motor sailor from the mid-1970s, when his father took charge of the boat, to the late 1990s when she was sold because Stephen was emigrating to New Zealand.

Key among those memories was the time Amazon spent moored on the River Medina on the Isle of Wight, when the young Jack became entranced by the RNLI inshore lifeboats based at Cowes.

This early introduction to the lifeboat charity would become a lifelong passion, as Jack is now visiting all 237 RNLI lifeboat stations in the UK and Republic of Ireland, to photograph them using Wet Plate Collodion, a Victorian process that allows him to record stunning images on glass.

The Lifeboat Station Project, as it is called, began in 2015 and is likely to take five years to complete. It is effectively crowd-funded, with Jack relying largely on print and poster sales to keep him on the road.  

He says: “From an early age, I knew that I wanted to be either a photographer or a lifeboat crew member when I grew up. Now I’m following my heart and uniting the two dreams. I’m using a photographic technique developed in the 1800s. The photographs are made directly onto glass plates known as “ambrotypes”.’

The photographic process Jack uses was developed around the 1850s to the 1880s, making it roughly contemporaneous with the building of Amazon. Her builder and first owner, the splendidly named Tankerville Chamberlayne , personally supervised her construction by his own Arrow Yard at Northam on the  River Itchen .

 S he was originally used for summer cruising, to attend sailing  regattas  along the south coast of England, and to visit France. She remained in south coast ports as a private yacht throughout the First World War, after which a new owner took her to  London .

After 52 years of service her original engine and boiler were removed on her conversion to diesel in 1937. The  Second World War  put paid to pleasure cruising and she subsequently became a London houseboat for some years until Arthur Lowe  bought her for around £1500 in 1968. 

Arthur poured thousands into restoring the Victorian steam yacht. He planned to retire onto her and had her berthed at Teddington. He and his wife Joan used her as a place to entertain friends, having installed a bar and a harmonium.

  These interior features were still present when Jack and his parents first lived on board in 1976.

  Jack says: “I still remember the smell now. It smelt old and a bit damp, but not in a bad way. The floorboards were creaky but she was visually beautiful. Lots of highly polished wood and brass.”

  He also remembers going to sea on Amazon: “As an 11 or 12-year-old boy, to be given the wheel by my dad, going across Southampton Water, it was an incredible experience. Everyone would be watching her going past. It made you feel like the king of the seas.”

  As gets older, Jack finds that his memories of his time on board Amazon with his family become more special. “It was where I got to know my dad,” he says.

  And a love of Victoriana isn’t the only thing that Jack shares with grandfather Arthur. The celebrated actor was also a staunch supporter of the RNLI for many years, serving as vice-president then president of the Twickenham and District fundraising branch. He also involved fellow Dad’s Army actors in raising awareness of the charity, leading to Arthur and the rest of the cast receiving the 1977 RNLI ‘public relations award’.

  Jack, who lives in Newcastle upon Tyne, now travels the country in ‘Neena’ – a decommissioned NHS ambulance purchased on eBay and converted into a mobile darkroom. He has already visited a quarter of stations on the RNLI network. There will be both books and exhibitions celebrating the project when it is completed, so that all those who have supported him will have a chance to see the work in its entirety.

Follow Jack’s RNLI photographic mission on Facebook ( fb.com/LifeboatStationProject ), on Twitter ( @ProjectLifeboat ) or on the Project’s dedicated site (  lifeboatstationproject.com ).

RELATED ARTICLES MORE FROM CLASSIC BOAT

Oldest Ocean Globe Race Boat: Olin Stephens’ Galiana

Western Flyer Restoration: The John Steinbeck fishing seiner

Classic Races & Regattas 2024: Classic World Events Guide

Recently added to the directory.

Classic Boat is the magazine for the world’s most beautiful boats. Packed with stunning images, we have the inside stories of the great classic yachts and motorboats afloat today, as well as fascinating tales from yesteryear and the latest from the wooden boat building scene around the world.

• Awards 2017
• Telegraph.co.uk

ADVERTISING

© 2024 The Chelsea Magazine Company , part of the Telegraph Media Group . Terms & Conditions | Privacy Policy | Cookie Policy

Memories of Arthur Lowe, of Dad's Army fame, stirred by lifeboat photo project

Newcastle-based Jack Lowe got a taste for all things nautical when visiting grandfather Arthur Lowe's steam yacht, Amazon

• 16:00, 27 JAN 2016
• Updated 18:02, 27 JAN 2016

Get the latest news from Newcastle straight to your inbox

We have more newsletters

On January 6, with Christmas done and New Year resolutions already fraying at the edges, Jack Lowe hit the road in his converted ambulance, Neena. The Lifeboat Station Project was back on track.

I caught up with Jack at the end of December in his studio at Hoults Yard in Newcastle .

He was fired up with his self-imposed five-year mission to photograph – with the blessing of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution – all 237 of the lifeboat stations in the UK and Ireland using the Victorian wet plate collodion method which lends a timeless quality.

One year into the project, the photos already taken (500 of them) are breathtakingly beautiful. But the job’s 86% done (Jack’s a bit of a stats man, nothing if not meticulous).

In the studio as 2015 drew to a close, the eyes were shining, the bit firmly between the teeth... and at that point there was still a tree to decorate and a turkey to be carved.

I was first introduced to Jack a few years ago. I’d rushed to Hoults Yard to interview someone else, having just finished a review of a Dad’s Army stage show at the Theatre Royal.

“Come and meet Jack Lowe,” said Hoults Yard owner Charlie Hoult. “He’s Arthur Lowe’s grandson.”

Arthur Lowe, of course, played unflappable Captain Mainwaring in Dad’s Army. How’s that for a coincidence? All this means veritable riches for an article like this.

I remember the first episode of Dad’s Army. I watched it with my grandparents who were Second World War vintage and not too sure. My grandmother suggested it wasn’t right to send up the brave men of the Home Guard.

But the performances won them over and Arthur Lowe’s Mainwaring, for me, has always represented a high water mark of comedy genius.

How brilliant to meet his grandson. I even went to the Lit & Phil to borrow the memoir (Arthur Lowe – a life) written by Stephen Lowe, Arthur’s son and Jack’s dad.

It was published 20 years ago and Jack doesn’t figure much. But I felt I got to know the senior Lowes pretty well... and also that I could see something of Jack’s perfectionism and relish for this touring project in Arthur’s dedication to his craft which took him to theatres in most cities.

“I didn’t know him very well because I was only six when he died but I do have a lot of memories,” said Jack of his grandfather.

“I remember going to the flat in Maida Vale with its tiled entrance, black and white.

“And I know that one thing he did do was he said to my mother, ‘Well, if nothing else, he’s going to have a decent pram’.

“He went with my mother to Harrods to get one. He used to enjoy going to Harrods because he could speak Arabic and understood what a lot of the customers were saying.

“Many people don’t know he was fluent in it because he worked in the Middle East during his Army years.

“Anyway, they chose a pram and he pushed me home through Regent’s Park. That was a big thing for him.”

ALSO READ: Newcastle photographer Jack Lowe on his plan to photograph 237 lifeboat stations and crews

Jack’s grandfather was famous then but according to Stephen’s book, which details hundreds of acclaimed stage performances over decades, he wasn’t comfortable with impromptu reminders of his celebrity.

“That was at the stage when people were shouting across the street ‘Stupid boy’,” smiled Jack. “He used to hate it.”

That, of course, was one of Mainwaring’s many catchphrases.

Arthur Lowe died in 1982 (Jack remembers seeing the news on Ceefax). But repeats of Dad’s Army run endlessly on BBC2 and more interest will be generated by the new film due to be released on February 5 with Toby Jones as Mainwaring.

Jack’s legacy from his grandfather would seem to be a love of the sea.

Poor eyesight prevented Arthur joining the Merchant Navy and Stephen, now living in New Zealand, became a commercial diver.

But the lives of all three men were touched by the Amazon, a Victorian steam yacht which Arthur and his actress wife Joan bought in 1968 and lovingly restored. They lived on the vessel and took her to sea.

Stephen, in his book, recalls an accident-prone holiday cruising along the coast of France with his parents. Jack, in turn, tells of living on the Amazon for a while with his parents when it was moored on the Thames at Teddington.

Here you see a photo of the vessel moored in Ramsgate harbour with Jack’s Harrods pram on the jetty.

Jack said it was thanks to Amazon that his twin passions have melded into this absorbing project.

“I’ve been a photographer and a lifeboat fanatic since I was eight years old. I remember seeing my first lifeboat in Brighton Marina and I was one of the very early members of the RNLI’s junior membership scheme, Storm Force.

“And there is a nice tie-in with Arthur in that he was a great fundraiser for the lifeboats. He was the president of the Twickenham and District RNLI branch in the 1970s which is now the Teddington RNLI Lifeboat Station.

“When I went to Cromer earlier in the year (2015) the station historian, Paul Russell, dug out a newspaper clipping of my grandfather going there in 1972, so in some ways I’m following in his footsteps.

“I’m trembling now, thinking about it.”

Jack pulled out a photo album, “my most treasured item”, which shows snaps of him as a baby at some of the places he is now revisiting with his camera and his mobile darkroom, Neena.

“My mum died of breast cancer when she was 42 and I was just 24”.

You can see why the Lifeboat Station Project has become all-consuming.

It has been a source of new friendships, some with RNLI stalwarts who remember Arthur, and has stirred deep emotions. But far from being whimsical, it’s deadly serious.

“I don’t do anything unless I really mean it and I’m tenacious, “ said Jack. “I don’t leave something until I have completed it to the best of my ability.”

Jack’s dream, at the end of a project which is taking him away from home and family in Newcastle for weeks at a time, is for a special exhibition, preferably in the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern.

You can buy Jack’s fabulous prints and read his blog on www.lifeboatstationproject.com

• Newcastle upon Tyne
• Most Recent

• Forum Listing
• Marketplace
• Advanced Search
• Lost Contact & Research
• Ship Research

CUBITTS YACHT BASIN- Chiswick Lon W4 - merged thread

As previously mentioned, my father owned the MTB Ariel. Now I have recently found an invoice for mooring charges dated September 1953. He was charge £2. 2s 6p per week plus an additional 1/- a week for water.  

boat.nick said: the fan tailed boat ex steam sailing vessell you saw was the Amazon which, as a child was woken to the sound of burning wood, however Arthur Lowe brought her and did a fatastic job of restoring her to former glory. Click to expand...

it could have been after, i believe someone had added a large shed like cabin aft of miships and maybe that was where the fire started, i vaugly remember the people who owned her hoarded ton s of books. it was not uncommon to have a fire start on board as heating and electric arrangements wher crude at best. one night i wanted the light on so Cheyne( my mother) put a t towel of the galley light resulting in a burnt bulkhead in the midddle of the night. i learnt quickly to sleep in the dark after that. are you the present owner of Amazon? it was unbelievable to see her in such grand state and after learning of her crossing the pond i thought it was by dry ships  

Thanks for the response, boat.nick! Amazon had an after deckhouse (you can see it in the background of one of pappag's pictures) that looks the same as the one she had in a photograph from 1937. I am not sure whether that after deckhouse had been removed before 1968, but if so, it may be that there had been a fire in the superstructure as you suggest - that would make sense of situation. Anyway, whether there was a fire in that after superstructure or it was the stuff burning ashore during Arthur Lowe's ownership that you remember, I am certain she had no fire in the hull, as most of this still remains intact today. Yes, we (my wife and I) are the owners, having bought her at the end of 1996. Although we had to make some repair to the counter stern and, of course, replace most of the systems on board, we had little to do to the hull, which is still in remarkable condition for its age. We sighted her bottom in 1999, when all the old copper (5 thin sheets thick in places!) was removed, the hull cleaned and inspected, no repairs needed, recaulked, payed and sheathed in new copper, which may explain our confidence in her. It was evidently the first time the bottom had been completely uncovered since she was built in 1885. She isn't perfect though, as we don't believe in sacrificing any old, but sound, material in the pursuit of 'perfection'. We think it a shame that there are so many 'old' boat frauds around today that have had 'instant makeovers' to achieve 'as new' finish, meaning that there is usually nothing of the original vessels left (the style without the substance). Amazon 's trans-Atlantic voyages (Cape Verde Islands to Barbados in 2009 and St, John's, Newfoundland to Ireland in 2011) were practical demonstrations of her sea-keeping qualities; Dixon Kemp had a good eye and he stated in his book that Amazon was to be 'a good seaboat'. How many ships have made their first return ocean crossings at 124 and 126 years of age? I wonder if anyone can remember a Mr Mike Roberts, who was involved in the Basin at the time of the houseboats being moved out for the developers at the end of the 1960s? He says that he acted as a sort of intermediary (broker?) between the ownership of Dominic Stone and Arthur Lowe; I am wondering whether this was also done with other boats in the Basin. It seems he agreed a price with Mr Stone and paid a proportion of it, pending a sale to another buyer (in this case Mr & Mrs Lowe), assuming responsibility for the vessel and her costs in the meantime. When Arthur Lowe bought her, Mr Roberts paid the balance to Mr Stone. Soes anyone know whether this was this common practice at the time?  

AS 7 year ols boy ny fatherb put me to task at the helm on Sea Lion last exit through the cut, my instructions has to turn hard to starboard as quickly as possible when entering the Thames, low and behold the dodgy port engine failed and we drifted down river and picked up a mooring bouy, the Seal Lion was sold by my father to someone in Essex and I believ most boats where sold that way or those lucky enough to find a mooring took up residence elsewhere  

Matthew East

Oregon 1960 - 1965 Hi Lived on a 52ft Admirals Barge for the first 5 years of my life. We then immigrated to Australia where I still live. Matt  

Matthew East said: Hi Lived on a 52ft Admirals Barge for the first 5 years of my life. We then immigrated to Australia where I still live. Matt Click to expand...

Just found this from CLASSIC BOAT MAGAZINE on "AMAZON" Captain Mainwaring’s yacht rests after transatlantic crossing By Classic Boat // February 19, 2011 The 1885 yacht that belonged to Arthur Lowe from Dad’s Army has been spotted in America The 1885 screw steamer (and former steam yacht)Amazon is spending a sheltered winter at Mystic Seaport in Connecticut, after having crossed the Atlantic. The classic motor sailer, originally driven by a coal-fired compound engine and boiler but now diesel powered, celebrated her 125thanniversary last year – proof positive if any were needed, that older wooden boats can stay viable when properly built and maintained. Amazon (102ft LOA) was built at the Arrow Yard in Southampton to a Dixon Kemp design of teak and pitch pine on oak frames with bronze fastenings. She’s mostly still original. And she’s also the yacht that used to belong to Arthur Lowe – better known as Captain Mainwaring in Dad’s Army. This entry was posted in News. Bookmark the permalink. 1 5 Responses to Captain Mainwaring’s yacht rests after transatlantic crossing Michael Roberts says: June 20, 2011 at 9:15 pm I sold “Amazon” to Athur Lowe in 1969 whilst I was involved with Cubitt’s Yacht Basin which is in Chiswick, London. Amazon had been used as a house boat for many years and all the steam machinery had been been removed apart from some of the engine castings which I found in pieces in the bilges, it had bean broken up with a 14lb hammer, I cannot sure of it’s maker but it was probably Sissons. I still have a drawing of the vessel prepared by Tough Bros Ltd of Teddington (about 8miles upstream from Cubitts basin) on the River Thames. This drawing shows the revised interior layout and the position of the Perkins diesel engine which on trials propelled the vessel at 9.8 knots (almost the same at the original steam engine). I supplied and installed a Stuart-Turner diesel generator inside the funnel, this produced 24 volts DC and charged a large bank of batteries sited below the main saloon, these powered the oil fired central heating system and diesel fired cooker. and hot water system. The maiden voyage, following the restoration was from Teddington to the River Medway, a journey of about 80 miles, which I really enjoyed and in the company of many of the cast of “Dads Army” and Mr Frank Newman from Tough Shipyard who was a great personal friend of mine. For some while, “Amazon” was moored in St Katherine’s Yacht Haven near Tower Bridge in London, I looked after her as I worked in an office nearby and spent many a pleasant evening on board. Foll0wing Arthur Lowe’s death, I lost contact with “Amazon” I understand that ownership was transfered to Arthur’s son Steven. He moved her to Scotland and moored it on the Caledonian Canal and was living on board. I have no knowledge of “Amazon’s” movements since then. I find it difficult to believe that the vessel protrayed in the photograph is the same “Amazon” that I knew for whilst the hull shape is the same, the superstructure is totally different, also the builders of the “Amazon” I know were Tankerville-Chamberlain who were based on the Isle of Wight and was constructed in I888. she was not of teak constuction but as described by the surveyor emplyed by Arthur Lowe, as “A jacobs coat” a mixture of timbers from pine to larch to mahogany, below the waterline she was copper sheathed, part of which was removed and exposed a mixture including teak and pine (If my memory serves me correctly, bearing in mind it was along time ago!) I am happy to try and answer any questions that may arise and would very much like to learn if it is the same old “Amazon” that I knew so well. Mike Roberts. Reply Michael Roberts says: June 21, 2011 at 10:07 am Please note my email address is [email protected] (not [email protected] ) Reply Michael Roberts says: October 18, 2011 at 12:27 pm Further to my comments dated the 21st of June 2011, “Amazon” is unquestionably the vessel I sold to Arthur Lowe. (Not as I stated in 1969, but in 1968). The details I gave were in good faith and I do hope the current owners will accept this, bearing in mind it was 43 years ago and was largely based on information provided by the previous owner, I am so pleased to learn that “Amazon” is now back in the United Kingdom following her epic transatlantic crossings and wish her (and her current owners) great success on all their future voyages. Michael Roberts (18th October 2011) Reply Amazon's owners says: October 30, 2011 at 11:57 pm Mike Roberts’ interesting (and rather surprising!) comments were brought to our attention, so we contacted him to seek clarification as we knews that his comments were erroneous. Unfortunately, as is often the case after many years, memory can be fallible and embarrassingly at odds with incontrovertible contemporaneous written evidence. When we contacted Mike he stated that there were no written records for the yacht, but this is wrong. There are (and indeed were at the time), contemporaneous Registration and survey records; we have the good fortune to hold these now. Mike has therefore been kind enough to submit his latest message above and, as discussed with him, we shall elaborate below on the details ‘for the record’ (although it may well be that very few people will read this somewhat dated ‘news item’ webpage). By way of background, Mike was involved with the clearance of vessels from Cubitt’s Yacht Basin before its conversion to the present Chiswick Quay marina and as a result acted as sales agent on behalf of Mr Dominic Johnson Stone, who owned ‘Amazon’ from 1960-1968. It was Mike’s advertisement in the Sunday Times of ‘Amazon’ as a ‘Houseboat… beautifully fitted ex-steam yacht… Constructed from 2? Burma teak, sheathed in copper, the hull is practically maintenance free… contact the Sole Agent’ that attracted Arthur and Joan Lowe to view her. The Registrar of Ships subsequently recorded that the transfer of ownership from Mr Dominic Johnson Stone to Mr & Mrs Arthur and Joan Lowe took place on 7 September 1968 (that we had this detail was a surprise to Mike). Concerning Mike’s remark on the superstructure, ‘Amazon’ has had quite a number of these during her long life (they are simple ‘bolt on’ structures and relatively simple to fit and remove); however, far from being ‘totally different’ the forward superstructure today is largely that which she had back in 1968. From photographic evidence the deckhouse was fitted sometime between 1920 and 1937, by which time she carried large forward and after deckhouses with a wheelhouse ‘extension’ above the forward one! When ‘Amazon’ was built she was unusual in being ‘flush decked’ with no deckhouses at all. From other photographs and records it seems her first deckhouse was fitted over the Ladies Cabin (aft) sometime between 1900 and 1920. The registry books of the Registrar of Shipping and Seamen’ and her Certificate of Registry as a British Ship from the 1880s onwards have recorded that ‘Amazon’ was designed by Dixon Kemp for Tankerville Chamberlayne Esq, who built her at his private (i.e. non-commercial) ‘Arrow Yard’ at Northam, Southampton, personally superintending the construction. The date the keel was laid remains uncertain (it may very well have been in 1884), but there is no doubt whatsoever that ‘Amazon’ was launched and operating in 1885. Indeed, Dixon Kemp’s First Edition of his seminal ‘Yacht Architecture’ was published in 1885 and contains the details of ‘Amazon’s’ sea trials. The suggestion that she ‘Amazon’ was built in 1888 in the Isle of Wight is just plain wrong. We can confirm from our personal inspection that ‘Amazon’ was built and remains teak and pitch pine on oak (the ‘state of the art’ for such construction at the time). Mike’s remarks about “A jacobs coat” mixture of timbers from pine to larch to mahogany are very confusing and when asked he could not identify the source; these comments are certainly at odds with the years of reports of Arthur Lowe’s surveyor that we hold, which state that shortly after her purchase by the Lowes she was ‘in remarkable condition for her age’. Self-evidently the fact that ‘Amazon’ was in such good condition for an old ship (she was 83 in 1968 and is almost 127 now) provided the opportunity that Arthur Lowe seized to pursue his seagoing ambitions with her. Had she been a ‘crock’ in 1968 she would most likely have remained a houseboat, not returned to a sea-going existence. We bought ‘Amazon’ from Stephen Lowe at the end of 1996 when she was lying in Scotland (she had been at Inverness for some years). With quite minor effort she was ready and able to make passage to the Central Mediterranean in 1997. In our ownership, we have had to make some repairs to the end of her counter stern, but ‘Amazon’ remains mostly the yacht that was built in 1885 (‘expert’ opinion puts the original fabric of her hull as well over 80%) and the chief effort we have had to make is to the replacement of machinery and systems throughout (from engines to tanks to pipes to wires). It has been a continual source of pleasure to us that such a very old vessel can be in such sound and operational condition as ‘Amazon’ still is. Anyway, the proof of the pudding is surely in the eating: ‘Amazon’ must surely be unique in not being a ‘restoration’ (i.e. she remains mostly the original structure) and in having made trans-Atlantic voyages at 124 and 126 years of age. She should have plenty of years and miles left in her yet! Thank you, Mike, for your kind remarks in your latest post above; we accept that your comments were made in error and on the basis of fallible memory. Who knows, ‘Amazon’ may yet call at Ramsgate again. Reply Stephen Lowe says: June 4, 2012 at 12:17 am What a joy it was to see her moored below Tower Bridge today for the Queen’s Jubilee! Amazon has to be one of the most remarkable yachts ever… I’m so pleased we were able to play our small part by rescuing her from Cubitt’s and getting her back to sea, and thank you Mike for the part you played in that. Amazon’s new owners you are so wonderful, taking Amazon on all these epic voyages. We wish you a great stay in London, and a safe voyage home to Malta. Reply  

Hi yes her name was Oregon. She was double diagonal teak and copper sheathed. Build in 1912 she had been converted from steam and I think had a leyland tank engine. I will see if I can get a pic and upload it to where I can link to it or I can send you an email. Matt  

Matthew East said: Hi yes her name was Oregon. She was double diagonal teak and copper sheathed. Build in 1912 she had been converted from steam and I think had a leyland tank engine. I will see if I can get a pic and upload it to where I can link to it or I can send you an email. Matt Click to expand...

scorcher said: I am trying to locate any photos of Cubitts Yacht Basin situated near Chiswick Bridge, where the boat race ends. I lived in Chiswick when I was young and dreamed of living in an house boat there when I grew up.They redeveloped it and all trace was lost. It was a magical retreat from the hurly-burly of London.Plane trees surrounded it and a motley collection of vessels were nestled in the rectangular basin. I remember a Victorian steam yacht with clipper bow and yellow funnel bedecked with geraniums, several MTB"s converted to houseboats and several other craft. It was an artist"s paradise and several actors/actresses and writers lived there I believe. I have been googling until goggle eyed but have traced nothing of note.I would like photos to base a painting on. This would be 1940-1950"s. A pretty obscure request I know but worth trying I hope?. Thanks for reading this. Click to expand...

boat.nick said: I was lucky enough to live on Sea lion from birth until 7rs old when develpors took over, my dad fought to the end to stay but to no avail, so many memories i ionly have contact with eddy williams family Tom Jones son lived on our friends mtb Ariel coco the clown in the corner close to the playing fields I saw a picture of the Magnet when you google cubitts, the fan tailed boat ex steam sailing vessell you saw was the Amazon which, as a child was woken to the sound of burning wood, however Arthur Lowe brought her and did a fatastic job of restoring her to former glory. Click to expand...

pappag said: Scorcher, I've uploaded some more photos for you to view. Pappag Click to expand...

Kes said: Hello Pappag, I was one of the "boat children" from 1961 to 1969/70 when Cubitts was closed/developed. Lots of magical childhood memories. I was friends with Nicky & Adrian who lived aboard Sea Lion, I also played on the Wight Queen & Amazon when owned by Arthur Lowe & his lovely wife, I played with their dog Taffy. My Dad 7 Mum, Pat &Molly Thompson owned "Blue Water" which they bought in 1961 when I was 5! They intended to live on her at Cubitts. They rebuilt & refurbished her but sadly we never got to live on her as we moved from London to Luton and so Blue Water was sold, the new owners took her to Rickmansworth, never knew what happened to her apart from seeing her once they lived on her and painted her red! I was (still am) Kerry Ann, had bright red hair then. Would love to see any photos you may have during the time I was there. Mum has some old photos which I'll borrow to put in the Gallery. All the best. Click to expand...

Matthew East said: Hello you would have played with my older siblings. We live on Oregon from 1960-65. Our Family name is East, my Dad worked for BOAC. Judith, Jonathon, and Christofer were 8,10 & 3 years older than me as I was born in 1960 in Luton hospital and came home to live on the boat. My first girlfriend lived on a barge, I am trying to remember her name. Matt Click to expand...

Kes said: Ahoy there! Thanks for your response Kes, most interesting and of course I would very much like to see any photos. It is good to see that old shipmates are exchanging messages. Best Wishes. Alan. Click to expand...

Matthew East said: Hello you would have played with my older siblings. We live on Oregon from 1960-65. Our Family name is East, my Dad worked for BOAC. .... Hello Matt, I worked in the London docks until 1965 when I joined BOAC in their cargo handling section . Was your father flying crew or ground staff ? Click to expand...

scorcher said: Kes said: Ahoy there! Thanks for your response Kes, most interesting and of course I would very much like to see any photos. It is good to see that old shipmates are exchanging messages. Best Wishes. Alan. Click to expand...

Hi we left for Australia in Sept 1965...Dad (Ken) was an Aircraft Engineer. If you have face book add me and I can link you to Judith. Matt https://www.facebook.com/matthew.east  

• ?            
• 124.6K members

Top Contributors this Month

Aye aye, Cap'n: Arthur Lowe at sea

Arthur Lowe always protested that he was not like the character he played in Dad's Army , and in at least one sense he was quite correct. In the sitcom, he played Captain Mainwaring, who wanted to be in command on land. In real life, on the other hand, he played Captain Lowe, who wanted to be in command at sea.

The great passion of Arthur Lowe in his later years, aside from acting, was sailing - or rather not so much 'sailing' as such as sitting around on deck before and after the craft had sailed. He liked relaxing on a boat.

Always grateful for the privacy afforded by a good pair of pantaloons ('Trousers are very personal things, you know,' he said as Mainwaring, 'not to be bandied about'), it was no surprise that his sea legs would remain well-hidden until the actor had settled into middle-age. Born in 1915 in the High Peak hamlet of Hayfield in landlocked Derbyshire (where his father worked on the railways), he served in the Duke of Lancaster's Own Yeomanry and spent much of the actual war in and around the deserts of the Middle East (where his most common means of transport was usually a horse and sometimes a camel).

He had actually been intrigued by the sea, however, since his days selling motor parts at Brown Brothers in Salford, where, during his leisure time, he used to watch cargo ships plying the Manchester Ship Canal and the Mersey Estuary and then sailing off to the ocean beyond. A failed Board of Trade eye test scuppered his dream of joining the Merchant Navy, so he drifted instead into acting and a life spent treading the boards and the studio floor.

That move, reluctant though it initially had been, would prove inspired, because Arthur Lowe , of course, went on to have a magnificent career as a comic actor. Few home-grown performers, in fact, would come close to matching his enduring appeal as a master of Pooterish pomposity.

There was, for one thing, something strangely timeless about him: going bald at the tender age of twenty-three consigned him to character parts much earlier than most, and it meant that the Arthur Lowe who played the coach guide in Poet's Pub ( watch ) in 1947 , and the reporter in Kind Hearts And Coronets in 1949 , looked more or less interchangeable with the Arthur Lowe who was still hard at work two decades later, with far more experience now packed into his performances than many of his contemporaries could manage. He thus monopolised uppity mediocrity for at least a third of a century.

It helped that he was as well-rounded technically as he was physically. He could mine every last meaning from the most basic of lines (only Lowe could make the name 'Wilson' sound, when he wished it to, like an accusation, a provocation, a panicky plea or a damning judgement), but he was equally adept at visual business, unerringly able to slip off a chair or fall over a foot and re-emerge with his hat sliding down over one ear, his few remaining strands of hair sticking out like quotation marks, and his delicate glasses swinging from side to side like windscreen wipers.

He was also a sublime bridler. Borrowing the abrupt backward arch of the shoulder blades from WC Fields, and the sharp eyebrow-raised look of indignation from Oliver Hardy , he went ahead and bridled for Britain. Someone only had to be posher than his character, or smarter, or taller, or cruder, and this little man would shoot up on to his tippy-toes as if he had just sat on a spike. Few things in comedy, to this day, are as wonderful to watch as Mainwaring's moue-mouthed reaction whenever he suspects that Wilson is inwardly (or even outwardly) sniggering at him; one can almost hear his precious self-esteem gurgling away down the plughole.

In addition to all of this, he had a rare ability to convey a sense of tired exasperation at what he perceived to be the sheer incompetence of those all around him. It was an art that echoed the brilliant music hall comedian Robb Wilton and his cheek-cradled portrayals of a succession of world-wearied and put-upon officials ('Anyone might walk in 'ere and say that they've poisoned their husband,' groans his pencil-licking police sergeant. 'You can't go on a thing like that!'), but Lowe made the pose all his own. Faced with Wilson's lofty diffidence, or Pike's naïve impracticality, or Jones's frantic rambling deep into the realms of fantasy, and the actor would make Mainwaring sigh softly like a flattened sofa cushion, slide his fingers behind his glasses to press down on his aching eyes, and then hold his head as if it had just doubled itself in weight.

It was the most perfect snapshot of a spirit suddenly held captive by the combined forces of flesh, bone, time, space and enervating boredom, obliged to share the painful moment with people who, unlike him, were blissfully ignorant of their own flaws. He would usually end the ordeal by blowing his cheeks out like someone who had just shut the door on the relations who had stayed through most of Christmas.

Anyone who has ever had to listen to someone recount their latest dream, or explain in excruciating detail why they chose not to take a certain course of action, or recall something stunningly banal very, very, slowly in strictly chronological order, surely cannot help but nod in recognition at Mainwaring and his all-too-believable on-screen anguish. It is, quite simply, comic acting at its finest, and shows why Arthur Lowe became, and remained, so respected, and admired, and loved.

As his career advanced on the stage and screen, however, so, too, did his yearning for the sea. He even started measuring his success by how much closer it was taking him to securing a craft to captain.

That ambition began to take on greater momentum at the end of the 1950s, when, after years of poorly-paid stints on the stage, and even poorer-paid minor roles in movies, he made it into the more lucrative medium of television. Five years as a regular in Coronation Street ( 1960 -65) as the pompous draper Leonard Swindley, followed by a spin-off series called Pardon The Expression ( 1966 ), followed by a sequel to that entitled Turn Out The Lights ( 1967 ), and he had finally acquired enough funds to realise his off-screen dream: he was going to buy that longed-for boat.

He and his wife, Joan (also an actor, of lesser stature, known professionally as Joan Cooper ), had already spent a couple of years searching for a suitable craft, inspecting no fewer than thirty different vessels of varying sizes and shapes, but had never found one that satisfied all of their requirements. It was only in the summer of 1968 , shortly after Arthur had started appearing in Dad's Army , that, while sipping a Black Velvet and flicking idly through the newspapers on a quiet Sunday morning, he came across a classified advertisement for an 83-year-old ex-steam yacht ('or ideal permanent home') called the Amazon.

It was a sleek and elegant 102ft 52-ton Victorian wooden screw schooner - the oldest of its kind, it was said, in the country. Attracted by its basic description and the thought of its rich and complicated history, the couple's curiosity was kindled, and so, sensing that this might finally be 'the one', they started researching its history at the Maritime Museum.

It turned out to have been designed by the celebrated marine architect Dixon Kemp, and built expressly for the MP and sailor Tankerville Chamberlayne, in his family's own Arrow Yard at Southampton, as a vessel that would excel both at racing and at cruising around the English Channel. Constructed of Burma teak and pitch pine on oak frames, with an elm keel and teak planking, it was a sleek and stylish-looking creation (with two comfortable single staterooms for the gentlemen and a separate 'ladies' cabin' designed for two), much-admired by connoisseurs of such crafts. A regular attendee at South Coast regattas, as well as being used as Committee boat by the Royal Southampton Yacht Club, it also was present at the Royal Fleet Review in 1897 that was held to mark the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria.

The Amazon then spent three years in north-western France, under the new ownership of M. Henri Dubois, the Commodore of the Yacht Club Dinard, who renamed it the 'Armoricain', before returning to the British flag, and its original name, at the turn of the new century.

After passing through a number of other wealthy hands, and having had its old steam engine ripped out and replaced by a modern diesel unit, the vessel was requisitioned by the Admiralty at the start of World War II. Its subsequent military service ended abruptly, however, after being the victim of a near-direct hit by a V-1 'doodlebug' flying bomb at Cubitt's Yacht Basin in Chiswick, which saw the boat showered with shrapnel; several beams were left cracked or smashed by the sheer force of the blast, and the Amazon was unceremoniously dumped in a dock as one more casualty of war.

In peacetime, the charred and uncherished yacht was eventually rescued, repaired and converted into a static London houseboat. After a few years of being inhabited by a succession of increasingly bohemian-looking residents, however, the money ran out, and so did the owners.

When the Lowes found it, therefore, the once-glamorous Amazon had long been abandoned and left in a dilapidated state in a dock at Chiswick. There were all kinds of dusty junk dumped on board, the cabins reeked from a damp and dirty bilge, there was minor damage to the deckhouse, some of the copper sheathing was missing and the rudder had been nibbled by gribble. Its neglected condition, however, did nothing to discourage the excited couple. 'Even though it was rotting and there were chicken runs on the deck,' said Arthur, 'we fell in love with her.'

They bought the yacht for £1,850 (negotiated down from the initial asking price of £2,000) and, over the next couple of years, spent about £20,000 more on restoring it to its former glory (a combined sum of more than £310,000 at 2020 prices). 'I can't think of a better way of passing time than sailing around in my own boat,' Arthur declared. 'I know I'm spending a lot but it will be worth it.'

Poring over copies of the original plans (which Arthur would often take with him into rehearsals and, much to the Dad's Army director David Croft 's irritation, spend more time studying them than he did the actual scripts), Lowe arranged for some boat-builders to renovate the hull, the bright yellow funnel and the twin masts, and install a more modern and powerful Perkins diesel engine to propel the vessel at about 9.8 knots. They also stripped the interior and had the original oak panelling treated and restored, and added a period-appropriate wheelhouse.

The workers soon came to dread the arrival of Arthur at the boatyard after he had completed the demands of his day job. He would turn up clutching a clipboard and immediately take charge of the operation, sending carpenters, engineers and storemen racing off in all directions as he listed their latest tasks. There was, however, plenty of logic to his many interventions, because the project was clearly a labour of love.

Arthur wanted everything to seem as authentic as possible, so he and Joan went and found some genuine Victorian lavatories (with brass-hinged mahogany seats) to be installed, and spent a few more months searching the local antique shops and showrooms until they sourced a proper vintage armchair-style sitz bath. A dressing table and bed were made from panelling Arthur spied in a skip outside the Buckstone Club near the Haymarket Theatre, and, from similar sources, he added a Rayburn solid-fuel stove and a fireplace. Joan also arranged to have an elderly harmonium bought and brought on board after discovering that one had been used during the early days to entertain any visiting guests.

The only eye-catching piece of customisation came when Arthur decided to cut a crescent shape out of the bar so that his tummy could rest more comfortably as he sat there sipping a glass or two of his regular Gin and French. 'It's for Joan's benefit,' he would lie when visitors commented on it. 'It lets her pass behind me a little more easily.'

Having berthed the boat at the Tough Brothers yard in Teddington, Arthur stepped back and declared the finished article to be his 'pride and joy', and he, along with Joan and their young son Stephen, was able to spend a first family Christmas aboard the vessel in 1970 . From that point on (even though they had only recently moved into a very smart and attractive property at 2 Maida Avenue in London's elegant Little Venice), they treated the boat as their version of 'a cottage in the country', relaxing there for as long as possible in between each one of their acting assignments.

It was never entirely clear whether the Amazon provided them with a distraction from performing, or merely gave them a different stage to keep on doing so. Arthur took to wearing a captain's hat, a white thick-ribbed sweater and a nautical blazer, and, once he had hired a four man crew (comprised of a master, engineer and cook, together with his dresser who doubled as steward), he started striding around the deck issuing instructions with the authority of a salty old sea dog. Joan, meanwhile, would sometimes dress like a guest on the Titanic, have drinks served on a silver salver, and play tunes from the twenties and thirties on her wheezing old harmonium.

The Lowes had always seemed quite eccentric. They were certainly a rather private couple, rarely given to explaining their actions, and that reticence only encouraged their eccentric image. Ian Lavender , for example, would remember watching the pair of them one evening, when the cast of Dad's Army were staying at a hotel in Thetford while filming on location, as they headed up to bed: they were carrying two rosebushes, a hosepipe and a bottle of Guinness. As people would say, the Lowes had always seemed quite eccentric.

Their friend Peter O'Toole delighted in seeing them immerse themselves in this somewhat camp seagoing adventure. 'They'd go driving up and down the Thames in this dirty great boat,' he would recall, 'with people playing the organ. A boat with an organ! We used to call him Admiral Bligh. Arthur was a throwback to the old and proper days, larger than life.'

The one drawback about being docked at Teddington was that Lowe was often spotted on board by the locals as he busied himself polishing the brasses. Hearing them shout out such things as, 'Oi, Captain Mainwaring - don't panic!' would cause him either to scuttle off swiftly down below or else snap back at them haughtily, 'Clear orf!' Most of the time, however, he was able to potter about in peace, living his dream at last.

It did not take long, of course, before Lowe started inviting his colleagues from Dad's Army on board for long and leisurely Sunday lunches (which were well-lubricated by a special cocktail - comprising of gin and ginger ale, with a single slice of cucumber - he had named in honour of the yacht), but the presence of his on-screen platoon seemed to make him act even more like a maritime Mainwaring.

It would always start well enough, with Arthur proudly showing off his nautical persona - 'There was a lot of looking over the side in a "meaningful" way,' David Croft later recalled, 'and pointing at things' - but, just like in Walmington-on-Sea, someone or something would invariably intrude to start rattling the captain's cage.

'We'd all be there,' Bill Pertwee would remember of one occasion, 'just chatting and drinking and gossiping, when suddenly Arthur would stand up and shout, "Weigh anchor!" And we'd set off. Then, after we'd only travelled about a hundred yards down the river, he'd stand up again and shout, "Down anchor!" And we'd stop again! Everyone was spilling drinks and looking around wondering what on earth had happened!'

When Pertwee went over and asked what the reason had been for this strange micro-journey, Lowe looked at him solemnly and said, 'Snotty little boy. On the bank. Picking his nose and fishing'. He shook his head slowly and added, 'Oh, no, no, no - we're not having our lunch with THAT sort of thing going on!'

One other place to which Arthur quite often liked the Amazon to coast was Henley-on-Thames, mainly because he simply liked the look and location and sheer 'boatiness' of the place, but also because he sometimes wanted to take in the local Regatta. His presence there caused some problems with the local press, however, because while the editors always wanted a splash with a national celebrity, the journalists knew how loathe Lowe was to say anything of any significance.

'I came to dread hearing that he was coming,' one reporter told me. 'The first time was fairly okay - " Arthur Lowe 's here on his boat - go and get an interview". And he'd be quite hard work - he was nice enough but he just didn't like doing interviews - but we'd talk about his yacht, and Dad's Army , and a bit about his forthcoming shows or whatever. Fine - you got an article out of it. But he kept coming back - " Arthur Lowe 's here on his boat - go and get an interview". Over and over: " Arthur Lowe 's here on his boat - go and get an interview". Then you'd just think, "Oh for gawd's sake, not again!" You knew he didn't want you to bother him, and you knew you wouldn't get anything new worth printing out of him. After a while we'd all try to make ourselves scarce if we knew he was on his way! But he loved that yacht, he really did, and he clearly got a kick out of seeing other people appreciate it.'

The Amazon would start sailing longer distances once the Lowes hit upon the idea of using the vessel as free and private floating accommodation whenever they were appearing together on stage (and Joan always put immense pressure on Arthur to make sure that they were appearing together on stage) at seaside resorts during the summer. They would moor the yacht in such places as Ramsgate, Cromer, Brighton, Eastbourne, St Helier in Jersey and Cowes on the Isle of White while they worked at the nearby theatres.

Such experiences made them more adventurous, and they started sailing further afield, even popping over to Paris on a number of occasions for day trips and restaurant visits. Arthur never sailed the vessel himself (at least not for more than a few yards), preferring instead either to hire a professional crew or else use his son, Stephen, who by this stage had done what his father failed to do and joined the Merchant Navy.

They did have one ill-fated foreign excursion that soon sank deep into farce: another Paris-bound adventure that on this occasion was undermined first by the intermediate shaft bearing over-heating and almost causing a fire, then by the bowsprit becoming entangled in some ironwork and subsequently cracking apart from the prow, and then, as they stubbornly sailed on towards a mooring place at Le Vieux in Vernon, by the boat ending up getting stuck on a mudbank and then having its taffrail snapped off as a visibly amused bunch of locals set about towing it roughly back into action ('Damned Froggies,' harrumphed Arthur, bridling briskly; 'Look, just get the fucking boat back to England!' snapped a tired and emotional Joan). Most of the time, however, these seafaring experiences were exactly the kind of things for which the Lowes had always longed.

Arthur's swelling pride in the Amazon, combined with the need to keep funding its upkeep, would also see him start hiring it out to television and movie companies for use in period dramas. Its on-screen appearances would include scenes in The Onedin Line and When The Boat Comes In - the sight of which seemed to give Arthur far more satisfaction than any of his own performances ever did.

There were also a few more parties thrown for the Lowes' show business friends, during which the 'captain' would take great delight in guiding his guests around the boat and lecturing them at length on some of the high points of its long and eventful history. Always eager to maintain a proper sense of order and decorum, however, Arthur took the precaution of having the keen calligrapher Colin Bean (who played the seldom-speaking Private Sponge in Dad's Army ) to inscribe some detailed 'Dos and Don'ts' signs, which were framed and put on display at various places on board to remind visitors of how they should best behave.

Things began to change a little towards the end of the 1970s, however, as both of the Lowes struggled increasingly with their declining health. Arthur was suffering from the advancing effects of narcolepsy, which triggered intermittent and uncontrollable episodes of drowsiness during daytime. He responded to this frustrating and sometimes frightening condition with remarkable grace and good humour - 'The mulligatawny's not as good as it was,' he muttered on one occasion as, upon waking, he raised his head from out of the soup bowl - but it had already led to Joan banning him from driving their Daimler after he had blacked out more than once while at the wheel.

Joan, meanwhile, was sinking slowly but inexorably into alcoholism. Her drinking had been getting noticeably worse for some time, causing numerous problems with her professional commitments, and late in 1977 , on the occasion of the farewell dinner for the Dad's Army cast and crew at London's Café Royal, she had stood up to make a speech, lasted a minute or so while swaying from side to side, and then suddenly sat down again and slid straight under the table.

One way or another, therefore, the Lowes were becoming increasingly frail, and there was no doubt that they would from now on be happy but passive passengers on their own yacht, entirely reliant on either their crew or their son not only to carry them from place to place, but also to ensure that they stayed safe.

They still, however, remained doggedly active. The Amazon was meant to have been a floating retirement home for the Lowes, but the Lowes never actually retired. Arthur, even though his prodigious powers as a performer were now failing, never stopped being in demand, and he did his very best to arrange that Joan felt much the same.

Arthur died in April 1982 . He collapsed from a stroke in his dressing-room at the Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham, less than an hour before curtain up on the play in which he and his wife were appearing - a revival of Home At Seven . Joan and the show, in keeping with theatrical tradition, went on without him. He passed away early the next day, aged sixty-six. Joan, after enduring a long period of self-chosen but lonely isolation, died five years later.

The Amazon, in their absence, passed into the possession of their son, Stephen. Moored in recent times at St Katharine's Haven alongside Tower Bridge, the yacht swayed slowly there, empty, looking almost as bereft as any other member of the family.

In 1993 , Stephen, now entering his forties, decided to sail the yacht up to the Scottish Highlands, mooring it at the Clachnaharry Works Lock on the Caledonian Canal near Inverness, where it would go on display as a floating museum. Visitors (for an entrance fee of £1.50) could step on board and learn about the history of the vessel, and hear tales about its most famous owner, as well as look at a variety of Lowe family heirlooms.

A year later, Stephen - who was now married to a New Zealander and was eager to emigrate with her there - put the yacht up for sale at the sum of £285,000 - a reasonably fair price, given the current quality and provenance of the craft. None of the offers came close, however, and so, after months of frustration, he lowered the price to £185,000, but, in a depressed market, still no serious bids arrived. In 1996 , therefore, with Stephen and his wife now desperate to leave, an offer at a knockdown price of £85,000 was, reluctantly, accepted, and, after twenty-eight years, the Amazon left the Lowe family.

The next few years would be interestingly peripatetic for this historic yacht as a private cruising vessel. After a minor refit in Scotland it left the Muirtown Basin and sailed to Malta, and then, for various lengths of stay, moved on to Gibraltar, the Canary Islands, Cape Verde, Barbados, various ports of the USA, Canada, Newfoundland and Ireland. In 2012 it was returned to England to be present for Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee Pageant on the Thames. It is currently based in the Channel Islands.

Wherever the Amazon will go, however, the spirit of its old owner will surely go with it. On the screen, Captain Mainwaring will forever be guarding his own little corner of England, from Timothy Whites all the way down to the Novelty Rock Emporium. Off the screen, on the other hand, a trace of Arthur Lowe will always be out there somewhere at sea, and that is just what he always wanted.

Share this page

Donate to british comedy guide.

Join us in our mission to support and promote British comedy across the decades.

Subscribe to our newsletters

Get all the latest news and information in your inbox, with our range of email newsletters to meet all interests.

• Deceased Actors
• Stage Show Actors
• Radio Series Actors

Arthur Lowe

• Edit source
• View history

Arthur Lowe (22nd September 1915 – 15th April 1982) was a BAFTA Award winning English actor. He was best known for playing Captain George Mainwaring in the popular British sitcom Dad's Army from 1968 until 1977.

• 1.1 Early life and army career
• 1.2 Early acting career
• 1.3 Dad's Army
• 1.4 Other acting work and later career
• 1.5 Final years and death
• 2 Personal life

Biography [ ]

Early life and army career [ ].

Lowe was born in Hayfield, Derbyshire as the only child of Arthur (1888–1971) and his wife Mary Annie (Nan) née Ford (1885–1981). As a child, he went to Chapel Street Junior School in Levenshulme, Manchester. Lowe’s original intention was to join the Merchant Navy, but this idea was thwarted because of his poor eyesight. After working in an aircraft factory, he joined the British Army on the eve of the Second World War, but not before experiencing his first brush with the acting world by working as a stagehand at the Manchester Palace of Varieties. Lowe served in the Middle East with the Duke of Lancaster's Own Yeomanry during the war, and began to take part in shows put on for the troops, which appears to have sparked his desire to act. He left the Army, in which he served as a radar technician, at the end of the war with the rank of Sergeant Major.

Early acting career [ ]

Lowe made his debut at the Manchester Repertory Theatre in 1945, where he was paid £5 per week for twice-nightly performances. Working all around the country, Lowe became known for his character roles, which included parts in the West End musicals Call Me Madam, Pal Joey and The Pajama Game . One of his earliest screen roles was a brief appearance as a reporter near the end of Kind Hearts and Coronets in 1949.

By the 1960s, Lowe had successfully made the transition to television, and landed a regular role as draper/lay preacher Leonard Swindley in the soap opera Coronation Stree t (1960–65). His character became sufficiently popular with viewers for him to appear in two spin-off series; Pardon the Expression (1966) and its sequel Turn out the Lights (1967). Swindley was not a role that Lowe relished though, and he longed to move on. During the months he was not playing Swindley, he was busy on stage or making one-off guest appearances in other TV series such as Z-Cars (1962) and The Avengers (1967).

Dad's Army [ ]

Arthur Lowe as Captain Mainwaring

A sketch of Arthur Lowe as Captain Mainwaring by James Beck

In 1968, Lowe was cast in his most famous role - as Captain Mainwaring in the BBC comedy-sitcom Dad's Army . Later, his former colleagues on the show remarked that this was the role that most resembled Lowe himself - pompous and bumbling. Lowe had a clause written into his contract specifying that he would never have to lose his trousers, which is why Wilson is leading the platoon during the changeover sequance in the feature film . Lowe also played Mainwaring's drunken brother Barry Mainwaring in the 1975 Christmas episode My Brother and I . He also took the character into a radio series and a stage show .

Other acting work and later career [ ]

When not involved in Dad's Army , Lowe appeared in plays at the National Theatre and the Royal Court Theatre. His film roles included Spike Milligan's surreal The Bed Sitting Room , in which he mutates into a parrot, the part of a drunken butler in The Ruling Class with Peter O'Toole, and an appearance in a Vincent Price comedy-horror movie Theatre of Blood , as one of the unfortunate critics.

Between 1971 and 1973, Lowe joined Dad's Army colleague Ian Lavender (who played Private Pike ) on the BBC radio comedy Parsley Sidings . In 1974 he played Mr Micawber in the BBC serial David Copperfield, and also employed a multitude of voices on the 1974 BBC animated series Mr. Men, in which he voiced all the characters as well as narrated.

When Dad's Army run ended in 1977, Lowe remained much in demand, taking starring roles in television comedies such as Bless Me Father (1978–81) as the mischievous Irish priest Father Charles Clement Duddleswell – quite a departure from the pompous characters that Lowe usually portrayed – and Potter (1979–80), as busybody Redvers Potter.

By now he was making many television commercials (including one for Wispa bars, in which he appeared in-character as Captain Mainwaring ), but his later stage career mainly involved touring the provinces, appearing in plays and pantomimes with his wife, Joan. In 1981, he reprised his role as Captain Mainwaring for the pilot episode of It Sticks Out Half a Mile , a radio sequel to Dad's Army . His last film role was in Lindsay Anderson's Britannia Hospital .

Final years and death [ ]

In his final years, Lowe's alcoholism spiralled out of control, and he was reduced to acting in pantomimes and touring theatre productions. Graham Lord's biography recalls that by 1979, Lowe was suffering from major health problems, but continued to drink ever increasing amounts of alcohol, sometimes passing out on stage or at dinner. He was also a heavy smoker and his weight ballooned.

Lowe had long suffered from narcolepsy, and collapsed from the onset of a stroke in his dressing room at the Alexandra Theatre in Birmingham before a performance of Home at Seven (in which he starred with his wife Joan) on 15th April 1982. He died in hospital early the following morning, aged 66. His last interview had been on the live BBC1 afternoon show Pebble Mill at One , only a few hours earlier.

Lowe's ashes were scattered at Sutton Coldfield Crematorium following a

Statue of Lowe's character Captain Mainwaring in Thetford.

sparsely attended funeral. Joan herself did not attend as she refused to miss a performance of Home at Seven and, as a result, was appearing in Belfast at the time. A memorial service was held in May 1982 at St Martin-in-the-Fields, attended by his family, former colleagues, and many friends. His last sitcom, A J Wentworth, BA (with Lowe as a boys' schoolmaster) was shown during July and August of 1982.

In December 2007, plans were unveiled for a statue of Lowe as Captain Mainwaring to be erected in Thetford, where the outside scenes for Dad's Army were filmed. The statue was unveiled on 19th June 2010 by the two men behind the series' creation and scripts, Jimmy Perry and David Croft . Lowe has also had two blue plaques dedicated in his honour; one at Maida Vale, and one at his birthplace in Hayfield, Derbyshire.

Personal life [ ]

Lowe married Joan Cooper (1922–1989) on 10 January 1948. They had met in 1945 when she was his leading lady at the Manchester Repertory Theatre, and they remained together until his death. Their son, Stephen Lowe, was born in January 1953.

Lowe owned a distinctive former steam yacht, Amazon , which dated back to 1885. When touring at coastal theatres with his wife, Lowe used Amazon as a floating base. He bought the vessel as a houseboat in 1968, but realised her potential and took her back to sea in 1971; a unique example of Victorian boat design, she is still operating in the Mediterranean today. The ship had a bar with a semicircular notch cut halfway along, to enable both the portly figure of Lowe to serve behind the bar with his wife at the same time, acting as hosts during the parties they threw on board.

In an interview for a Dad's Army retrospective on BBC television in 2010, Lowe's co-star Clive Dunn (who portrayed Corporal Jones ) described him sitting at the bar in the evenings when they were filming on location, consuming a drink which Lowe named 'Amazon' after his yacht. Dunn described the drink as comprising of "gin and ginger ale, with a single slice of cucumber".

Lowe was a staunch Conservative, which sometimes caused tension between himself and Dunn, who was a Labour party supporter. After turning down several offers, Dunn eventually accepted an OBE when  Dad's Army  ended, an offer which was reportedly also extended to Lowe; however, he apparently would only accept a "higher level of honour". The episode A Man of Action , in which Mainwaring declared martial law, has been said to have been played with such gusto by Lowe because it entailed what he believed should be done against the Labour government of the time. Dunn once claimed that Lowe once asked "Why don't they just shoot them?" in response to the 1973 miners' strike.

• 1 Captain George Mainwaring
• 2 Private Frank Pike
• 3 Mavis Pike

• Search forums
• Classic and Wooden Boats

Yacht Amazon.

• Thread starter burgundyben
• Start date 28 Nov 2019
• 28 Nov 2019

burgundyben

Well-known member.

Wasn't Lowe's son trying to sell it for many years? Had the impression it wasn't in good condition but not sure why I remember that.  

This is what Wikipedia has to say: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_(yacht)  

The sort of vessel whose owner wears a monocle.  

• 29 Nov 2019

I'm sure she was ashore in Malta being refurbished about five or six years ago. Donald  

• 30 Nov 2019

KompetentKrew

Aja said: I'm sure she was ashore in Malta being refurbished about five or six years ago. Click to expand...

She was hauled up at Manuel (?) Island boatyard getting quite a bit of work done. Donald  

I remember her being for sale in a brokers' window in Cowes in about 1970-72. WIKI-' In an interview for a Dad's Army retrospective on BBC television in 2010, Lowe's co-star, Clive Dunn, described him sitting at the bar in the evenings when they were filming on location, consuming a drink which Lowe named 'Amazon' after his yacht. Dunn described the drink as comprising "gin and ginger ale, with a single slice of cucumber".[13] ' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Lowe I've always thought of his as an admirable, slightly sad tale, letting offers of work go by to stand by his wife.  

Members online

• Fr J Hackett
• Cymrogwyllt
• Andrew_Fitton
• springertoo
• Wandering Star
• WannabePirate
• PowerYachtBlog
• Corribee Boy

Share this page

• South-East History Boards »
• Maritime »
• Ships »
• Steam Yacht AMAZON

Author Topic: Steam Yacht AMAZON  (Read 1060 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

• Prolific Contributor

• Posts: 6495

Re: Steam Yacht AMAZON

• Posts: 4871
• We Wunt Be Druv
• SMF 2.0.19 | SMF © 2016 , Simple Machines

Arthur Lowe (1915-1982)

IMDbPro Starmeter See rank

• 1 win & 6 nominations total

• Barry Mainwaring
• Capt. George Mainwaring
• Sergeant Ironside
• 1968–1977 • 80 eps

• The Reporter

• Capt. Mainwaring

• A.J. Wentworth, B.A.

• Guest Patient

• Father Charles Clement Duddleswell
• 21 episodes

• Captain Walton

• Redvers Potter
• 13 episodes

• Smaller Workman

• Jeremy Charters

• Mr. Beaver (US version, voice)

• Old King Cole

• 80 episodes

• Dr. William Watson, M.D.
• performer: ""See, Amid The Winter's Snow"" aka Hymn For Christmas Day

• performer: "Happidrome Theme" (uncredited)
• performer: "I'm Gilbert the Filbert", "The Red Flag", "The Varsity Drag", "Goodnight (I'm Only a Strolling Vagabond)" ("The Internationale", uncredited)
• Soundtrack ("Who Do You Think You Are Kidding, Mr. Hitler?", uncredited)
• performer: "Could You Please Oblige Us With A Bren Gun"

• performer: "Forty Years On"
• performer: "In Sunny Samarkand"

Personal details

• 5′ 4″ (1.63 m)
• September 22 , 1915
• Hayfield, Derbyshire, England, UK
• April 15 , 1982
• Birmingham, England, UK (following a stroke)
• Joan Cooper January 10, 1948 - April 15, 1982 (his death, 1 child)
• Other works In 1976 he appeared in television commercials for Pascall's Hanky Panky sweet snacks.
• 2 Print Biographies
• 1 Portrayal
• 1 Interview
• 2 Magazine Cover Photos

Did you know

• Trivia He was interviewed live on BBC TV's lunchtime magazine programme Pebble Mill at One (1972) , collapsed at 6 PM the same evening just before he was due to go on stage for a performance of Home at Seven in which he was due to appear with his wife, Joan, and died at 5 AM the following morning.
• Quotes Acting must be scaled down for the screen. A drawing room is a lot smaller than a theatre auditorium.
• When did Arthur Lowe die?
• How did Arthur Lowe die?
• How old was Arthur Lowe when he died?

Related news

Contribute to this page.

• Learn more about contributing

More to explore

Add demo reel with IMDbPro

How much have you seen?

Recently viewed