This biography is republished from The Dictionary of Irish Biography and was written by Turlough O’Riordan. Shared by permission in line with Creative Commons ‘Attribution’ (CC BY) licencing.
Born: 26 January 1869, Ireland
Died: 2 July 1951
Country most active: Ireland
Also known as: Beatrice Geraldine Hill Thompson, Beatrice Hill-Lowe
Lowe (Thompson), Beatrice Geraldine Hill – (1869–1951), archer and Olympian, was born on 26 January 1869 at Ardee House, Ardee, Co. Louth, the youngest of five daughters and three sons of William Ruxton (1823–95), landowner, JP, DL and vice-lieutenant for Co. Louth, and his wife Caroline Diana (née Vernon). In the 1891 census she is recorded as a visitor, ‘living on own means’, at the home of Arthur Hill Ommanney Peter Hill-Lowe, a retired Royal Navy commander, at 13 Emmanuel Road, Portsea, Portsmouth, England. Arthur Hill-Lowe’s wife had died in childbirth in 1889, and Beatrice was perhaps assisting with the care of their surviving one-year-old daughter, Ada. On 15 July 1891 Beatrice married Arthur Hill-Lowe at St Mary’s Abbey (Church of Ireland), Ardee. After honeymooning in London and Edinburgh, they settled at his family seat, Court of Hill, Nash, in south Shropshire, nestled near Tenbury Wells between Shrewsbury and Worcester in the west midlands, where he was a JP. Here they raised Ada alongside their own children, Arthur Noel Vernon (b. 1892) and Sibyl (b. 1897).
Assuming a genteel life of attending hunt balls, acting in summer fêtes, and competing in and judging arts-and-crafts fairs, Beatrice (as ‘Mrs Hill-Lowe’) participated from summer 1894 in local archery competitions, often in Cheltenham, which had a thriving club. Arthur was honorary secretary of the Archers of the Teme, based in Tenbury Wells, which held two meetings in July and two in August each year, at which the Hill-Lowes both competed (at the time, women often outnumbered men in archery competitions). In July 1897 Beatrice won the Crystal Palace meeting, and was then awarded the ‘first gross score prize’ at both the 54th grand national archery meeting at Malvern (August 1897) and the 20th grand northern archery meeting at Birkdale (September 1899). She was consistently competitive in open and handicapped competitions that comprised a variety of scoring and prize formats, and frequently successful in the ‘national round’ and ‘most golds’ or ‘most hits’ competitions. Placing second in the scoring to the formidable Alice Legh (1855–1948), of the Cheltenham club, Beatrice Hill-Lowe was awarded the ‘silver challenge belt for most hits’ at the grand national archery meeting at Oxford (August 1906).
Archery was the only sporting event open to women at the 1908 London Olympic games, and Hill-Lowe was one of twenty-five competitors, all of whom represented Great Britain. The competition was undertaken over two days (17–18 July) at the White City Stadium. In the ‘double national round’ format, 48 arrows at 60 yards and 24 arrows at 50 yards were shot each day. The gold medal was won by Sybil Fenton ‘Queenie’ Newell (1854–1929), with Hill-Lowe winning the bronze. She thus became the first Irish woman to win an Olympic medal. (At the same games, fifty-two Irish-born male Olympians competed (representing Great Britain, Canada and the USA), and twenty-two of them won medals.)
Legh, the predominant archer of the period (national champion twenty-three times (1881–1922)), had chosen not to compete at the Olympics, preferring to defend her national title at the grand national archery meeting the following week. She was again victorious, with Newell in second place and Hill-Lowe in third. In September 1908 Legh and Beatrice competed together at the Archers of the Teme meeting to mark the jubilee of the club, at which the Hill-Lowes were presented with a silver goblet in recognition of their organising efforts on behalf of the club. Beatrice competed again in Archers of the Teme meetings in summer 1909, but thereafter seems to have ceased competing.
After Arthur Hill-Lowe’s death on 17 April 1910 at Bayview, Tenby, Pembrokshire, Wales, Beatrice married secondly (29 June 1911) Lieutenant-Colonel Roland (Rowland) Wycliffe Thompson (1864–1940) at Pennaly, Pembrokshire. The fourth son of General Charles William Thompson, Roland served as a major with the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment during the Boer war (1899–1902), being present at the relief of Kimberley (February 1900), and awarded the DSO (April 1901); he was promoted lieutenant-colonel in June 1910, days before retiring. After honeymooning at Ballyshannon, Co. Donegal, the couple lived mostly at Giltar Lodge, Penally, Pembrokeshire. They lived for periods (c.1922–1928) at Newbridge Lodge, Celbridge, Co. Kildare (Thompson had been honorary secretary of the Curragh Golf Club in 1909, when stationed at the Curragh camp), before moving to 12 Queen’s Parade, Tenby, where Roland died on 15 April 1940, and Beatrice remained till her death. During the second world war, she was in charge of the Tenby Rectory Depot of the British Legion women’s committee. She died at her home on 2 July 1951.