Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Löwy, Albert
LÖWY, ALBERT or ABRAHAM (1816–1908), Hebrew scholar, born on 8 Dec. 1816, at Aussee in Moravia, was the eldest son of thirteen children (seven sons and six daughters) of Leopold Löwy by his wife Katty. His father's family had been settled for several generations at Aussee, and had produced many learned men, after one of whom, Rabbi Abraham Leipnik, author of a MS. account (in Hebrew) of the destruction of the synagogue in Aussee in 1720, Löwy was called. In 1822 his father left Aussee for Friedland, on the border of Silesia, where he owned a brewery. In 1829 Albert left home for schools in Leipzig, Jagendorf, and Olmütz, and eventually attended the University of Vienna. Among his friends and fellow students there were Moritz Steinschneider, the German Hebraist, and Abraham Benisch [q. v.].
Löwy intended, on the completion of his studies, to migrate to Italy, where Jews enjoyed much liberty. But in 1838, with his two friends, Steinschneider and Benisch, he founded 'Die Einheit,' a society of some two hundred students of the Vienna University, most of them Jews, who were endeavouring to promote the welfare of the Jews, one of their aims being to establish colonies in Palestine. In 1840 Löwy visited England to seek support for the scheme, and there he settled for life. A section of the Jewish community in London was at the time seeking to reform both ritual and practice. The reformers seceded from the main body of their co-religionists, opening on 27 Jan. 1842 the West London Synagogue of British Jews, in Burton Street. Löwy became one of the first two ministers ; David Woolf Marks [q. v. Suppl. II] was the other. With his colleague he edited the prayer-book of the new congregation, which he served until 1892.
In 1870, under the guidance of Löwy and Benisch, the Anglo-Jewish Association was formed in London to champion the cause of persecuted Jews and to maintain Jewish schools in the Orient. In 1874 Löwy, after attending a Jewish conference at Königsberg on the Russo-Jewish question, was sent by the Anglo-Jewish Association on a secret mission to Russia. His report on the position of the Russian Jews was published as an appendix to the 'Annual Statement of the Anglo-Jewish Association' for 1874. Lowy was secretary of the Anglo-Jewish Association from 1875 until his resignation in 1889. On 31 Oct. 1892 he resigned his ministry at the West London Synagogue, but he took part in public affairs until his death in London on 21 May 1908; he was buried at the Ball's Pond cemetery of the West London Synagogue of British Jews.
Löwy was an accurate and erudite Hebrew scholar. In 1872 Lord Crawford entrusted him with the preparation of a catalogue of his unique collection of Samaritan literature, and in 1891 he completed his chief task as a scholar, the 'Catalogue of Hebraica and Judaica in the Library of the Corporation of the City of London.' He engaged in the controversy over the Moabite stone at the Louvre, the genuineness of which he warmly contested. In 1903 he printed for private circulation 'A Critical Examination of the so-called Moabite Inscription in the Louvre.' Löwy also won repute as a teacher of Hebrew, and among his pupils were Archbishop Tait, the Marquess of Bute, and Thomas Chenery, editor of 'The Times.' He was a member of the council of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, and founded in 1870 the Society of Hebrew Literature (continued until 1877), and edited its publications. In 1893 he was made honorary LL.D. of St. Andrews.
In January 1851 Löwy married Gertrude (died January 1879), eldest daughter of Israel Levy Lindenthal, minister of the New Synagogue, Great St. Helen's, by whom he had nine children. His daughter, Bella Löwy, edited the English translation of Graetz's 'History of the Jews' (6 vols. 1891).
A tablet in the hall of the West London Synagogue, Upper Berkeley Street, W., commemorates Löwy's fifty years' ministry. An oil painting by Solomon J. Solomon, R.A., belongs to his son Ernest.
[Jewish Chronicle, 15 Feb. 1907 and 22 May 1908; private information.]
LOYD-LINDSAY. [See Lindsay, Robert James, Baron Wantage (1832–1901), soldier and politician.]
LUARD, Sir WILLIAM GARNHAM (1820–1910), admiral, born on 7 April 1820 at Witham, Essex, was eldest son in a family of five sons and six daughters of William Wright Luard (1786–1857) of Witham, by his wife Charlotte (d. 1875), daughter of Thomas Garnham. The family was of Huguenot origin and had migrated to England on the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, the chief branch settling at Blyborough, Lincolnshire, in 1747. To the elder line belonged Henry Richards Luard [q. v.], John Luard [q. v.], John Dalbiac Luard [q. v.], and Charles Edward Luard (1839-1908) of Ightham, Kent, who served in the royal engineers, becoming colonel in 1886 and major-general in 1887.
William was educated at the Royal Naval College, Portsmouth, and in 1835 was rated midshipman and appointed to the Actæon frigate. By his service as mate during the first China war he earned his commission as lieutenant, dated 4 May 1841. He was present in the squadron under Sir Gordon Bremer at the storming of Fort Taecocktow on 7 Jan. 1841, and at the capture of the Bogue Forts on 25 Feb., when the ships silenced the batteries of Anunghoy and on North Wantong, which the Chinese believed to be impregnable. As a lieutenant he served in the Isis, of 44 guns, on the Cape station, in the Grecian, sloop, on the south-east coast of America, and in April 1848 was appointed first lieutenant of the Hastings, of 72 guns, flagship of Sir Francis Collier [q. v.] in the East Indies. On 29 Sept. 1850 he was promoted to commander, and was appointed on the same day to command the Serpent, of 12 guns, in which he continued during the second Burmese war, taking part in the capture of Rangoon in April 1852, of Pegu in the following June, and other operations. He was mentioned in despatches and received the medal with the clasp for Pegu. He subsequently commanded the Star, sloop, on the south-east coast of America, and from her was in August 1860 moved into the flagship as executive officer. On 11 March 1857 he was promoted to captain. In July 1860 he was appointed flag captain to the commander-in-chief at the Nore, and in November to the screw line-of-battleship Conqueror for the China station. In her he took part in the operations in Japan, superintending the landing of storming parties at the destruction of the Nagato batteries in the Straits of Shimonoseki in Sept. 1864, for which service he received the C.B. and 4th class of the legion of honour. In Jan. 1869 he became flag captain to the admiral superintendent of naval reserves, and was captain-superintendent of Sheernees dockyard from May 1870 until he was promoted to flag rank on 1 Jan. 1875.
Luard had no employment afloat as a flag-officer, but was superintendent of Malta dockyard from March 1878 until promoted to vice-admiral on 15 June 1879. He afterwards served as chairman of several departmental committees, including that which inquired into the bursting of the Thunderer's gun in Jan. 1879, and in Nov. 1882 succeeded Sir Geoffrey Hornby [q. v. Suppl. I] as president of the Royal Naval College, Greenwich. He reached the rank of admiral on 31 March 1885, and a week later was placed on the retired list under the age clause; but he held his appointment at Greenwich for six months after retirement. He was a deputy-lieutenant and J.P. for Essex, and in 1897 received the K.C.B.
Luard died at Witham on 19 May 1910 as the result of a carriage accident, and was buried at All Saints' Church there.
He married in 1858 Charlotte, third daughter of the Rev. Henry de Cane of Witham, Essex, by whom he had time sons and eight daughters. Commander Herbert du Cane Luard, R.N., is the second surviving son. A portrait painted by Sidney Luard in 1905 is at 'Ivy Chimneys,' Witham.
[The Times, 20 and 25 May 1910; Burke's Landed Gentry.]
LUBY, THOMAS CLARKE (1821–1901), Fenian, born in Dublin in 1821 (Rutherford, Fenian Conspiracy, i. 46, says 1828), was the son of James Luby, a clergyman of the established Church of Ireland. He attended Mr. Murphy's school, and with a view to entering the church