Alexander Graham Low (1853-1936)

• Reference:GB 254 MS 458/1/13
• Dates of Creation:c1860-1994
• Physical Description:
  6.5 boxes, 1 large volume, 1 item

• Scope and Content

  Correspondence, personal records, photographs, sketches and ephemera, with records relating to finances and property, as well as legal records relating to AG Low and other family members

• Note

  'AGL was born on 3 May 1853 at La Hormiga, Tizapan on the outskirts of Mexico City. He was educated in Spanish at the local school and brought up speaking three languages - Spanish at school, French with his mother and English with his father. Later in life he learned Portuguese, Greek, German, Italian and various other languages
  
  After his father sold his cotton factory, La Hormiga, the family returned to England about April or May 1865 where AG and his two brothers attended Cheltenham College to continue their education. Alexander Fairweather Low, their father, bought or rented 84, Westbourne Terrace, London
  
  It appears that AFL was a wealthy man by the time he left Mexico. In London he set himself up in business as a merchant importing cotton, tea, coffee and other commodities while at the same time investing in a wide variety of companies around the world. After AGL left Cheltenham he seemed to have joined his father in his business activities. He travelled extensively in England and Europe, and then to far corners of the world, looking for investment opportunities, checking on the companies in which his father and he had invested, attending Annual General Meetings and Board Meetings. In London, he also acted as an executor and trustee for the estates of various members of the family.
  
  Over time AFL passed on various investments to his three sons so that they became financially independent of him. AGL lived at home until he married but continued to look after his father's business affairs until his death in 1898, and his mother's affairs until she died the following year.
  
  After AGL married Annie Halley he continued with his established business activities while his private life revolved around his ever larger family. My father, the eldest of their nine children, used to tell me that every alternate year they attempted to have a child while every other alternate year they went by boat to the far corners of the world to check on companies in which he had invested and to look for new business opportunities. The birth certificates of their children, variously describe their father as a 'Gentleman of independent means', a 'Tea Planter in Ceylon', and 'Cement Manufacturer' - presumably reflecting his latest interest when he registered the births. AGL died of pneumonia at 9 Holland Park on 21 January 1936'
  [Source: Alexander JS Low, 2022]

  AG Low is the grandfather of AJS Low and the father of Alexander Halley, Harriet, Gerald Harland, Philip Victor Chabot, Robert Fairweather, Kenneth Graham, Frank Buchanan, David Septimus Stewart, and Margaret Annie Low. He was the eldest son of Alex Fairweather Low & Mary AJ Chabot. He married Annie Halley in 1891.

• Additional Information

  Published