Orders, Decorations and Medals

Five: Squadron Leader L. E. Dowse, Royal Air Force, late Royal Naval Air Service, an ex-airship hand who went on to serve as an Air Armaments Officer

British War Medal 1914-20 (W.O. 2 L. E. Dowse, R.N.A.S.); 1939-45 Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45; Coronation 1937, very fine and better (5) £100-120

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Awards to the R.F.C., R.N.A.S. and R.A.F..

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Leonard Ernest Dowse, who was born in Alverstoke, Hampshire in September 1888, entered the Royal Marine Artillery in August 1906, but transferred to the Royal Naval Air Service in September 1912, most probably on account of his proficiency in gunnery - he scored 95% in 1907-08. Remaining employed in the U.K., he was advanced to Warrant Officer 2nd Class at the Barrow in Furness Airship Station in June 1917, where indeed he is listed as a gunnery specialist.

Granted a commission in the Royal Air Force at the War’s end, he became a Technical Officer at the Airship Base at Howden in 1920, prior to being posted to No. 84 Squadron’s at Shaiba, Iraq in March 1922, and thence to No. 2 Armoured Car Company in Palestine. Returning to the U.K. in July 1926, he was employed as Air Armament Officer at No. 10 Group, Gosport, but in December 1932 he was posted in a similar capacity to No. 216 Squadron at Heliopolis in the Middle East. Once more returning to the U.K. in 1937, when he joined No. 1 Bomber Group at Upper Heyford, Dowse was placed on the Retired List in the rank of Squadron Leader in August 1941. He died in February 1963.