Officer's forage cap : Squadron Leader V L Dowling, RAAF

Officer's blue woollen forage cap worn by Squadron Leader Vincent Laidley Dowling, RAAF. The cap has oxidised brass buttons at the front and a crown and eagle badge on the left hand side. The tan coloured polished cotton lining is marked 'English Manufacture Christys' London/James Thelwell & Co., 254, COLLINS STREET, Melbourne. WOOL', and is also marked in blue ink 'V L DOWLING'.

Vincent Laidley Dowling was born at Darlinghurst, NSW, in May 1888. He studied architecture at Sydney University before the First World War, and enlisted in the (British) Royal Flying Corps (RFC) in 1916. After training in the UK, he was posted to France as a Lieutenant in early 1918, serving with Nos 1 and 2 Aircraft Supply Depots. He relinquished his Royal Air Force commission as a Flying Officer in 1921 and returned to Australia, where he and a partner, J D Moore, established an architectural firm in Sydney. At the outbreak of the Second World War, Dowling offered himself for service in the RAAF, and was posted as a flight lieutenant to an aircrew training unit. In January 1941 he was promoted to squadron leader, a rank which he held for the remainder of the war. Dowling was discharged from the RAAF in July 1947. He died on 20 August 1981. His younger brothers, Captain Brian Laidley Dowling (22 Squadron RFC) and Lieutenant Max Russell Laidley Dowling (4 Infantry Battalion, AIF) were both killed during the First World War.

• Summer weight service dress tunic : Squadron Leader V L Dowling, RAAF