Charles Lowder

[1] However, Lowder wished to move to a parish with a more Catholic pattern of worship and in 1851 he became assistant curate to James Skinner at St Barnabas' Church, Pimlico.

A Mr Westerton, an opponent of the high-church worship at St Barnabas', stood for the post of churchwarden in an attempt to bring them to a stop and hired a man to parade up and down the street wearing a sandwich-board canvassing for votes.

In what he later called "a moment of madness" Lowder gave money to the choirboys to buy rotten eggs and encouraged them to pelt the board carrier.

The example of Vincent and the Lazarists had a great influence on him and he was convinced of the need for a secular order of priests in the Church of England to provide mutual spiritual support to one another and to extend the Catholic faith, particularly among the poor.

[1] The five other founder members were Charles Maurice Davies, David Nicols, Alfred Poole, Joseph Newton Smith and Henry Augustus Rawes (three of whom would later become Roman Catholics).

Many of the great SSC heroes were at one time Lowder's curates, including Alexander Heriot Mackonochie and Lincoln Stanhope Wainright (both of whom were later vicars of St Peter's, London Docks).

St Peter's, London Docks was consecrated on 30 June 1866 and Lowder became perpetual curate (and on the retirement of the previous rector in 1873, vicar).

[4] Unlike many of his contemporaries, Lowder managed to avoid prosecution for ritualistic practices, largely on account of the respect for him among his parishioners and fellow clergy.

The failure of the prosecution was a major victory for the Anglo-Catholic movement and contributed to the acceptance of advanced Catholic ritual in the Church of England.

The last service Lowder attended at St Peter's was on 1 August 1880 for a 'High Celebration' to mark the fourth anniversary of the Church of England Working Men's Society.

B. Spalding, president of the St Peter's CEWMS, presented Lowder with a silver badge of the society, "as a small proof of his many acts of kindness".