Person    | Female  Born 9/7/1855  Died 2/1/1923

Katherine Mackay Low

Categories: Philanthropy

Countries: USA

Philanthropist. Born in GeorgiaUSA 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

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Katherine Mackay Low

Commemorated ati

Katherine Mackay Low

Katharine Mackay Low, 1855 - 1923, philanthropist, in whose memory this settl...

Read More

Other Subjects

Royal Literary Fund

Royal Literary Fund

British benevolent fund for professional published authors in financial difficulties. The Prince Regent supported it by providing premises at 36 Gerrard Street.

Group, Literature, Philanthropy

1 memorial
Joshua Watson

Joshua Watson

Philanthropist, educationalist and prominent lay churchman.  Born Tower Hill.  Went into his father's wine merchant business.  1811 he took the house at Clapton.  A leading member of the "Hackney P...

Person, Education, Philanthropy, Religion

1 memorial
Sir Christopher John Benson, OAM, DL, FRICS

Sir Christopher John Benson, OAM, DL, FRICS

Serial Chairman. Chair of the Soho Housing Association in 1990. In view of the number of companies and groups that he's run, we're pretty sure we've got the right man. He was born on 20 July 1933 ...

Person, Armed Forces, Law, Liveries & Guilds, Philanthropy, Politics & Administration

1 memorial
William Cavendish, 7th Duke of Devonshire

William Cavendish, 7th Duke of Devonshire

Born Berkeley Square. Inherited the Dukedom from his cousin the 6th Duke, who died 1858. Father of Spencer Compton, the 8th Duke. Inherited land in Eastbourne, where a statue was erected for him.

Person, Philanthropy, Politics & Administration

1 memorial
Sir Robert Geffrye

Sir Robert Geffrye

Alderman, merchant and slave trader. From Cornwall, possibly Landrake. DOB uncertain. A member of the Ironmongers' Company and Lord Mayor, 1685-6. Married but produced no children and his wife pred...

Person, Lord Mayor, Philanthropy, Politics & Administration, Race Issues

1 memorial

Previously viewed

Queen Victoria statue - Victoria Square

Queen Victoria statue - Victoria Square

SW1, Victoria Square, Private Garden

The bronze statue depicts the Queen as she would have looked when she started her reign, in 1837, and when the square was first laid out,...

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
John Conder, DD

John Conder, DD

Non-conformist minister.  Born in Cambridgeshire.  Died Hackney.  Buried in Bunhill burial ground.  

Person, Religion

1 memorial
Ernest Bevin

Ernest Bevin

Born in Winford, Somerset. "The Dockers' K.C.". Self-taught. National Organiser of the Dockers' Union, 1910 - 1921. General Secretary of the Transport and General Workers Union (which he created...

Person, Politics & Administration

2 memorials
Hackney Council

Hackney Council

Hackney Council was created in 1965 from the 3 Metropolitan Borough Councils of Hackney, Shoreditch and Stoke Newington, all three of which had been created in 1900. Previously they had been paris...

Group, Politics & Administration

61 memorials