Kenneth Gordon Lowe (1917–2010) was a Scottish physician who did pioneering research as a

nephrologist Nephrology is a specialty for both adult internal medicine and pediatric medicine that concerns the study of the kidneys, specifically normal kidney function (renal physiology) and kidney disease (renal pathophysiology), the preservation of kid ...

and as a

cardiologist Cardiology () is the study of the heart. Cardiology is a branch of medicine that deals with disorders of the heart and the cardiovascular system. The field includes medical diagnosis and treatment of congenital heart defects, coronary artery di ...

Biography

After education at

Arbroath High School Arbroath High School is a six-year, all-through comprehensive school situated on the west side of Arbroath, Angus, Scotland. It moved into its present building in 1985. Accommodation The new building was opened in 1985 to serve the west side of ...

, he studied medicine at the

University of St Andrews The University of St Andrews (, ; abbreviated as St And in post-nominals) is a public university in St Andrews, Scotland. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest of the four ancient universities of Scotland and, f ...

and the

Dundee Royal Infirmary Dundee Royal Infirmary, often shortened to DRI, was a major teaching hospital in Dundee, Scotland. Until the opening of Ninewells Hospital in 1974, Dundee Royal Infirmary was Dundee's main hospital. It was closed in 1998, after 200 years of opera ...

(DRI). In 1941 he graduated

MB ChB A Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (; MBBS, also abbreviated as BM BS, MB ChB, MB BCh, or MB BChir) is a medical degree granted by medical schools or universities in countries that adhere to the United Kingdom's higher education tradi ...

from the University of St Andrews and shortly thereafter married Nancy Young, a medical student in his graduating class. He worked at the DRI and assisted with Daniel F. Cappell's pioneering blood transfusion service in Dundee. In 1942 he became a captain in the

RAMC The Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) was a specialist corps in the British Army which provided medical services to all Army personnel and their families, in war and in peace. On 15 November 2024, the corps was amalgamated with the Royal Army De ...

; for about two years he specialised in tropical diseases and served in the Caribbean, India, Egypt and Panama. Based upon his work with Bull and Joekes, Lowe graduated in 1950 with an MD degree from the University of St Andrews with an MD (Honours) thesis, which won the university's Rutherford gold medal. In 1952 he was appointed senior lecturer in medicine at St Andrews and honorary consultant physician at DRI. He developed a metabolic clinic with William Kinnear Stewart and the medical biochemist Henry Gemmell Morgan. Lowe was elected FRCPE in 1954 and FRCP in 1963. In 1960 he was elected a member of the

Harveian Society of Edinburgh The Harveian Society of Edinburgh was founded in April 1782 by Andrew Duncan (physician, born 1744), Andrew Duncan. The Society holds an annual Festival in honour of the life and works of William Harvey, the physician who first correctly des ...

. In 1967 he published with Hamish Watson and Donald Emslie-Smith an important paper on intra-cardiac electrocardiography of the

bundle of His The bundle of His (BH) or His bundle (HB) ( "hiss"Medical Terminology for Health Professions, Spiral bound Version'. Cengage Learning; 2016. . pp. 129–.) is a collection of heart muscle cells specialized for electrical conduction. As part of ...

; this was part of a research effort leading to therapeutic cardiac ablation techniques and improved

cardiac pacemaker image:ConductionsystemoftheheartwithouttheHeart-en.svg, 350px, Image showing the cardiac pacemaker or SA node, the primary pacemaker within the electrical conduction system of the heart The cardiac pacemaker is the heart's natural rhythm gener ...

s. In 1961 Lowe stopped teaching to become a full-time consultant in the health service, but continued in the University of St Andrews as honorary reader and then honorary professor. He was in 1959 a member of the committee, led by Dr A. A. Fitzgerald Peel, that founded the Scottish Society of Physicians, and he served as the Society's president in 1973. Lowe was appointed in 1971 physician to the Queen in Scotland. When he retired in 1982 he was made

Commander of the Royal Victorian Order The Royal Victorian Order () is a dynastic order of knighthood established in 1896 by Queen Victoria. It recognises distinguished personal service to the monarch, members of the royal family, or to any viceroy or senior representative of the ...

(CVO). His wife died in 1999. Upon his death in 2010 he was survived by a daughter Alison, two sons Gordon and Graham, and five grandchildren.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lowe, Kenneth Gordon 1917 births 2010 deaths 20th-century Scottish medical doctors British nephrologists British cardiologists People from Arbroath People educated at Arbroath High School Academics of the University of St Andrews Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh Royal Army Medical Corps officers Commanders of the Royal Victorian Order Members of the Harveian Society of Edinburgh