Rupe Lowell

Recruited from the Hawthorn metropolitan juniors, Rupe Lowell was a wingman whose promising VFL career was split between Essendon and Melbourne just prior to the Great War. After a solitary season with the Same Olds in 1913, he crossed to Melbourne, where he became a regular fixture in the senior side for two years. His football journey was abruptly halted by the conflict, with Lowell notably playing his final match for the club just two days after enlisting in the AIF in July 1915. He served as a driver in the Army Service Corps across Egypt and the Western Front, eventually earning a mention in despatches for his conduct, but the harsh conditions of the trenches aggravated a pre-existing eye injury that forced a medical discharge. Lowell returned to Australia in 1919 but never played at the top level again, his sporting prime ultimately sacrificed to his military service.