Fonds MG4153 - Marlowe Lowdon Fonds

Donated by Douglas Armstrong on November 27, 1991

Handwritten and typescript

Marlowe Lowdown was a weekly newsletter written in humorous style to keep its members abreast with the “news and gossip on the home front”. It was written and edited between 1941 and 1945 by a circle of about a dozen friends, most of whom grew up together on Marlowe Avenue in the Montreal suburb of Notre-Dame-de-Grace. Originally the group, who called themselves the Marlowe Gang, consisted of Douglas Armstrong, Charlie Crombie, Brian How, Leon Lepage, Gordon Reid, Leighton Smith, and Dick Stevenson. Douglas Armstrong was one of the main writers. The Marlowe Lowdown was compiled, edited, typed and mailed by Ralph Blake, who was declared medically unfit for the military service, and his wife Mary. Several of the members were involved in the war effort and wrote news from Britain and Germany, others were in Canada. Charlie Crombie joined the Royal Canadian Air Force, and was posted in England in 1941. Doug Armstrong also enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force. Bill Tacon, a New Zealander, joined the Royal Air Force, and became pilot in the Coastal Command. Others, such as Jim Boles, Ric Thomson and Andrew Spruell were posted temporally by the Royal Air Force to Ottawa, where they met the Blakes. They were admitted to the Marlowe Gang for the price of occasional letter. The mailing list expanded including Lawson and Weymouth Reid , Meredith Smith, Audrey and Ruth Lepage, George, Lorraine and Ann How, and Audrey Stevenson. Although this is a small group, it is representative of young English-speaking Montrealers in the 1940’s. Marlowe Lowdown is useful as a picture of life at the time (war time in Montreal), including many vignettes of Montreal life, views on politics, and social attitudes. Of the group the following are McGill graduates: Brian How, B.Sc. (Ag) 1939; Leighton Smith, B.A. 1941, M.D. 1943; Richard E. Stevenson, B.Com. 1942; Douglas Henderson, B.Sc. (Ag) 1942; Douglas Armstrong, B.A. 1941, D.D.S. 1949; George How, B.Comm. 1931; Anne How, B.A. 1943, B.A. 1944, B.L.S. 1946 and Loraine How, B.A. 1933, B.A. 1934.