Lord Lowry, who died on January 15th, was Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland from 1971 to 1988, a reign of pivotal importance to its legal system. The whole of his period of office was spent in conditions of serious civil disturbance, when the legal system and the personal safety of those who administered it - not least Lord Lowry himself - were under severe threat. He maintained throughout this time an unwavering commitment to judicial independence. He determined that the inroads of emergency legislation into the historic edifice of the common law should be kept to a minimum, and he strove successfully to preserve the traditional standards of justice from dilution or distortion.
Robert Lynd Erskine Lowry was born in 1919, the only son of William Lowry, who later himself became a judge of the Northern Ireland High Court. He had a distinguished academic career at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution and Jesus College, Cambridge, where he was an Open Exhibitioner and obtained first-class honours in Parts I and II of the classical tripos. Between 1940 and 1946 he served with the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers and the Royal Irish Fusiliers, and was demobilised with the rank of major.
He was called in 1947 to the Bar of Northern Ireland, where he built up a high quality practice with extraordinary speed and was for several years junior counsel to the Attorney-General. He took silk in 1956 and quickly became one of the leaders of the Bar, which he left to become a High Court judge at the early age of 45. His acute powers of analysis made him much in demand for appellate work and ensured that he was briefed on one side or the other; in almost every case which went to the House of Lords.
When Lord MacDermott retired in 1971, Lowry was the natural choice as his successor. He carried out his judicial work with a quiet courtesy, exemplary fairness and unruffled good humour in and out of court. His beautifully crafted judgements were the vehicle for impeccably reasoned decisions which were rarely reversed on appeal. In 1979 Lord Lowry became a life peer and in 1988 was appointed a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary, in which capacity he was engaged full-time in appeals to the House of Lords until his retirement in 1994.
Lord Lowry was an outstanding schoolboy cricketer and later a formidable low-handicap golfer, who captained the Malone Golf Club team which won the Senior Cup. He served as captain of Malone and Royal Portrush golf clubs and was president of the latter club for 23 years. As an international judge he was well known in showjumping circles, and he was a regular visitor to the RDS Show, as well as to Lansdowne Road and to Lord's.
Lord Lowry was married in 1945 to Mary Martin, who died in 1987. In 1994 he married Mrs Barbara Calvert QC, who survives him, along with the three daughters of his first marriage.
R.D.C.