Walter Lowen

Walter Lowen was born in Vienna on 10 March 1916 and spent his childhood in Lwow, Poland. A national junior table tennis champion, Walter contributed to Poland’s bronze medal at the Swaythling Cup world championships in London in 1935. Religious persecution in Europe spurred his migration to Australia in July 1939, a few months before he was due to complete his medical degree at the University of Lwow. In 1940, Walter was accepted into medicine at the University of Melbourne and, in 1941, he married Sima, whom he had met en route to Australia. Walter still pursued table tennis, winning the Australian singles title in 1948 as well as many state singles titles. In 2000, he was inducted into the Table Tennis Victoria Hall of Fame.