Editing Percy Lowe (section)

== Life ==

Lowe was born at [[Stamford, Lincolnshire]] and studied [[medicine]] at [[Jesus College, Cambridge]].<ref>{{acad|id=LW887PR|name=Lowe, Percy Roycroft}}</ref> He served as a civil surgeon in the [[Second Boer War]], and it was whilst in [[South Africa]] that he became interested in ornithology. On his return he became private physician to [[Sir Frederick Johnstone, 8th Baronet]], whose constant travel exposed Lowe to birds all around the world.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kinnear |first=N. B. |date=1948 |title=Dr. P. R. Lowe, O.B.E |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/162443a0 |journal=Nature |language=en |volume=162 |issue=4116 |pages=443 |doi=10.1038/162443a0 |bibcode=1948Natur.162..443K |issn=1476-4687}}</ref>

During World War One he served in the [[Royal Army Medical Corps]]; he was Officer in Command on Princess Christian Ambulance Train for which he was awarded the [[OBE]] in 1920.

Lowe worked with [[Dorothea Bate]] on fossil [[ostrich]]es in [[China]].<ref>[http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/67163?docPos=2 Bate, Dorothea Minola Alice (1878–1951), palaeontologist] by Karolyn Shindler in [[Dictionary of National Biography]] online (Retrieved 23 November 2007)</ref>

In November 1919 he succeeded [[William Robert Ogilvie-Grant]] as Curator of Birds at the [[Natural History Museum, London|Natural History Museum]], retiring on his sixty-fifth birthday in 1935. He was succeeded by [[Norman Boyd Kinnear]].

He was editor of the [[Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club]] from 1920 to 1925 and president of the [[British Ornithologists' Union]] from 1938 to 1943. In 1933 he was one of eleven people{{efn|The letter was signed: {{Flatlist|
* [[William Grenfell, 1st Baron Desborough|Desborough]]
* [[Hugh Steuart Gladstone|Hugh S. Gladstone]]
* [[Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon|Grey of Fallodon]]
* [[Julian Huxley|Julian S. Huxley]] (Chancellor of Oxford University)
* [[Tom Longstaff|T. G Longstaff]]
* Percy R. Lowe
* [[Peter Chalmers Mitchell|P. Chalmers Mitchell]]
* [[Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild|Rothschild]]
* [[Mungo Murray, 7th Earl of Mansfield|Scone]] M.P. (Chairman, British Trust for Ornithology)
* [[Emma Louisa Turner|E. L. Turner]]
* [[Harry Forbes Witherby|H. F. Witherby]] (President, British Ornithologists' Union)
}}}} involved in the appeal that led to the foundation of the [[British Trust for Ornithology]] (BTO), an organisation for the study of [[birds]] in the British Isles.<ref>{{cite news |title=Observers of Birds |url=https://www.bto.org/sites/default/files/u38/downloads/home-news/2013-06/bto-letter-the-times-July-1-1933.pdf |work=[[The Times]] |date=1 July 1933}}</ref> His 1936 publication ''The finches of the Galapagos in relation to Darwin's conception of species'' introduced the term ''[[Darwin's finches]]''.<ref>{{harvnb|Steinheimer|2004|p=[http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?viewtype=text&itemID=A161&pageseq=1 300]}}<br>{{harvnb|Lack|1940}}</ref>

In 1939 he was elected a [[Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union Fellows|Corresponding Member of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union]] and in 1946 was awarded the [[Godman-Salvin Medal]] of the [[British Ornithological Union]].<ref>{{cite web|url = http://www.bou.org.uk/about-the-bou/administration-and-people/medals-and-awards/|title = Medals and Awards|publisher = British Ornithological Union|accessdate = 11 January 2014|url-status = dead|archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20170331172205/https://www.bou.org.uk/about-the-bou/administration-and-people/medals-and-awards/|archivedate = 31 March 2017}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=1946 |title=Percy R. Lowe [picture] |url=https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/catalog/3793115 |access-date=2024-07-01 |website=National Library of Australia |language=en}}</ref>

An extinct species of penguin, ''[[Archaeospheniscus lowei]]'', was named in his honor to recognize his research into penguin fossils.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Miskelly |first=C. M. |date=2022 |title=Lowe's penguin |url=https://nzbirdsonline.org.nz/species/lowes-penguin |access-date=2024-07-01 |website=New Zealand Birds Online}}</ref>