Place Name
Commemorating diplomat Sir Gerard Lowther’s career. Lowther “a powerfully built [who] had the habits of a country gentleman as well as the self-confidence of his class” was a Barnes landowner, who had spent his early years in the diplomatic service in Spain from 1879. From Madrid, he was promoted from attaché to third secretary in 1881 and transferred to Paris. He went on become an ambassador in Tokyo, Washington, Budpest and Chile before taking up post in Constantinople. He is known for distributing anti-Semitic texts during his time in Turkey, playing a crucial role in the spread of Arab Anti-Semitism. T E Lawrence (of Arabia fame) called him a “dud”. The road itself was built in 1910. The area was originally part of the estate of William Lowther MP, 2nd Earl of Lonsdale, who inherited the land in 1846 when his uncle Lord Lonsdale died. When he himself died in 1872 he passed it on to his second son also called Gerard.
