HMS Collingwood

Military experience

Born in 1963 and educated at Harvey Grammar School Folkestone, Tim Lowe joined the Royal Navy in September 1981. After initial training at BRNC he served in a variety of ships; Bossington, Jupiter, Minerva, Orkney and Arethusa, prior to Commanding the Patrol Vessel HMS Sandpiper, he completed the Principal Warfare Officer Course, winning the Portobello Prize and qualifying as a PWO(U) in 1992.

Appointed to HMS Coventry he was selected to attend the first Specialist Navigation course in July 1993. On completion, he spent 12 months as Squadron Warfare Officer (Navigation) to Captain Second Frigate Squadron, serving in the Arabian Gulf, Mediterranean and South Atlantic before joining the staff of Flag Officer Surface Flotilla as the Navigation Specialist.

Promoted to Commander in December 1995, he joined the School of Maritime Operations as Commander Navigation. Following a short period working with Flagship Training Limited, he completed the final Joint Service Defence Course at the Royal Naval College Greenwich.

An appointment as the Information Warfare desk officer in the Naval Communications and Information Systems Directorate in the MoD preceded his second command, HMS Sheffield in April 1999, serving in home waters and the Baltic Region.

A busy 20 months as Chief of Staff, to Commander Amphibious Task Group then followed with deployments to the Middle East and the Mediterranean in 2001 and 2002 including support to initial operations in Afghanistan.

On promotion to Captain in December 2002, he returned to the MoD in the Directorate of Naval Operations, working with the Defence Crisis Management Organisation during Operation TELIC and completing a short loan appointment with the FCO.

Moving back across Whitehall to the MoD in September 2003, he was one of three Assistant Directors in the newly formed Joint Commitments Directorate and was also made the Navigational Advisor to the Admiralty Board. This was followed by a move to Belgium in October 2004 where he served as the Principal Staff Officer to the NATO Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe at SHAPE Mons, a UK General, as NATO prepared to expand it’s mission in Afghanistan.

Returning to the UK in April 2006 he took command of HMS Albion at the end of August 2006 and in the next 20 months as the Fleet Amphibious Flagship enjoyed a high tempo and varied operational and exercise programme operating from the Baltic to West Africa.

In October 2008 Commodore Lowe took Command as UKMCC Bahrain, Commanding RN and RFA ships in the Middle East and was responsible for in-theatre progression of inter-naval links throughout the region from Jordan to India. He also served under the Commander US Fifth Fleet as the Deputy Commander, Combined Maritime Forces in the US Centcom Area of Responsibility working with up to 40 Maritime Nations and creating a key counter piracy coordination group (SHADE) for the region.

Awarded a QCVS in Sep 2010 in recognition of his team’s outstanding efforts in Bahrain, he took up his current appointments as Commodore Maritime Warfare School, Commodore Surface Stream and Commanding Officer HMS Collingwood in June 2010. A Patron of the Solent MS Therapy Centre and a strong supporter of the The Rainbow Centre and The Baton he is also honoured to be the President of Sutton Sea Cadets, TS PUMA.