John Noel Dowland
Born(1914-11-06)6 November 1914
Lewisham, England
Died13 January 1942(1942-01-13) (aged 27)
Luqa, Malta
Buried
Capuccini Naval Cemetery, Malta
AllegianceUnited Kingdom
Service/branchRoyal Air Force
RankWing Commander
Battles/warsSecond World War
AwardsGeorge Cross

John Noel Dowland, GC (6 November 1914 – 13 January 1942) was a Royal Air Force officer of the Second World War and a recipient of the George Cross.[1]

Life

Dowland was the son of the vicar of Ruscombe, the Rev. F.M. Dowland, and educated at St John's School, Leatherhead before taking him flight training at Cranwell in 1934.[1] After Cranwell he was a gazette as a pilot officer and joined a squadron of Bomber Command.[1] At the outbreak of World War II he took command of a unit overseas.[1]

Dowland was a Royal Air Force officer of the Second World War and a recipient of the George Cross.[1] Along with civilian armament instructor Leonard Henry Harrison, Dowland was awarded the George Cross for his gallantry in defusing a bomb that had fallen on the grain ship SS Kildare in Immingham docks on 11 February 1940.[1] The bomb proved extremely difficult to defuse as it had embedded itself at an extreme angle in the main deck. The citation, which appeared in the London Gazette on 7 January 1941, noted that he displayed the same "conspicuous courage and devotion to duty in circumstances of exceptional danger and difficulty" when defusing a bomb on a trawler in June 1940.[2]

His and Harrison's actions were the earliest to be awarded the George Cross, although Thomas Alderson's award was the first to be announced.[3][4]

Dowland later achieved the rank of wing commander, but was killed when taking part in a raid on Pantelleria on 13 January 1942. After the aircraft he was piloting was damaged by anti-aircraft fire, Dowland attempted an emergency landing at Luqa, Malta. Both he and his observer were killed in the subsequent crash. Dowland is buried in Capuccini Naval Cemetery, Malta.[5]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Obituary in The Times, 17 January 1942, p.2
  2. ↑ London Gazette, 7 January 1941
  3. ↑ John Frayn Turner (2010). Awards of the George Cross 1940–2009. Casemate Publishers. ISBN 9781848842007.
  4. ↑ Michael Ashcroft (2012). George Cross Heroes. Hachette. ISBN 9780755364527.
  5. ↑ "Casualty details: Dowland, John Noel". Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Retrieved 7 May 2014.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.