LEST WE FORGET
Second Lieutenant Cyril Lester Gordon DOWNE MID
Service No: 13
Born: Echuca VIC, March 1894
Enlisted in the Army: 22 August 1914
Unit: No. 1 Squadron, Australian Flying Corps (attached to 5th Fighting School RAF)
Awarded the Mentioned in Despatches (MID), 28 June 1917
Died: Injuries from an Aircraft Accident, Abbassia, Egypt, 3 March 1919, Aged 25 Years
Buried: Cairo War Memorial Cemetery, Cairo, Egypt
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Henry Thompson Downe, of Shire Hall Rochester, Victoria, and the late Mary Taylor Downe. Born at Echuca, Victoria
Place of Association: Rochester VIC
Remembered: Panel 188, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Lieutenant Downe, flying as a Supernumerary, died from injuries following a mid-air collision between aircraft Avro 504K aircraft E1759 flown by Second Lieutenant William Frederick Heron RAF and Avro 504K aircraft D5505 flown by Lieutenant Clarence Henry Marchant RAF who were also both killed.
References:
Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour On-Line Records
Commonwealth War Graves Commission On-Line Records
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record B2455, DOWNE C L
National Archives UK RAF Casualty Card 269792, 79911
Bibliography:
Lax, M. (Mark) (editor) One Man’s War: Aircraft Mechanic Joe Bull’s Personal diaries 1916-9, Banner Books, Maryborough QLD 4650, 1997
Roberts, E.G. (Eric Glendower) (250197) Box Kites and Beyond, The Hawthorn Press Melbourne VIC 3000, 1976
Sutherland, L. W. (Leslie) Aces and Kings, Angus and Robertson, Sydney, 1935
Williams, Sir R. (Richard) (1) These are Facts: the Autobiography of Air Marshal Sir Richard Williams KBE, CB, DSO, Australian War Memorial and Australian Government Publishing Service, 1977 – Chapters 3-9