Philanthropist. Born in Georgia, USA to British parents. After her mother's death, the family moved to Britain. In Battersea, which at the time was a deprived area of London, she devoted herself to the care of the less fortunate. From UCL: she was "a leading light in the United Girls’ School Settlement Mission at Camberwell". After her death, her friends created the Katherine Low Settlement as a memorial to her, in order to continue the kind of service which she had started.
Our colleague Andrew Behan confirms that she was born on 9 July 1855 in Savannah, Chatham County, Georgia, USA, a daughter of Andrew Low (1813-1886) and Mary Cowper Low née Stiles (1832-1863).
In the 1871 census she is shown as a 15-year-old scholar living at 42 Clarendon Square, Leamington, Warwickshire, with her 22-year-old sister Harriet Low who was described as an annuitant, together with three younger siblings: Mary Cowper Low (1859-1932); William Mackay Low (1860-1905) and Jessie Low (1862-1932), a butler, a governess, a nurse, a cook, a parlour-maid, a housemaid and a kitchen-maid.
She is described as living on her own means in the 1891 census at Old Dalby Hall, Dalby-on-the-Wolds, Leicestershire, with her sister Mary Cowper Low, together with a butler, a valet, a waiter, a footman, four lady's maids, two housemaids, a kitchen-maid and a scullery maid.
The 1911 census shows her living in the 28 roomed property called Wellesbourne House, Wellesbourne, Warwickshire, owned by an elder widowed sister, Amy Grenfell, both of whom were described as living on private means, together with a housekeeper, two lady's maids, two parlour-maids, two house maids and a kitchen-maid.
She died a spinster, aged 67 years, on 2 January 1923 at 106 Park Street, Grosvenor Square, London, her death being registered in the 1st quarter of 1923 in the St George Hanover Square registration district, Westminster. Her body was buried in the churchyard of St Peter and St Paul's Church, Widmerpool. Nottinghamshire. Probate records show that probate was granted on 16 February 1923 to the London City and Midland Executor and Trustee Company Limited and that her effects totalled £84,536-1s-6d.
Credit for this entry to: Alan Patient of www.plaquesoflondon.co.uk
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