Khaki maternity style jacket : 2nd Lieutenant V L Dowling, Royal Flying Corps

Royal Flying Corps private purchase khaki woollen maternity-style jacket bearing the rank insignia of a 2nd lieutenant. The overlapped front panel of the jacket is secured on the right side by a series of six concealed plastic buttons underneath the front flap, and four brass hooks and eyes. The jacket has a single vent at the rear, and is fully lined with a brown woollen fabric. It has one internal and two external pockets, the external pockets being let into each of the front panels of the jacket at the waist, and having plain flaps which slope slightly downward towards the front. The internal pocket is formed by a slit between the lining and the external fabric within the front panel of the jacket, and has a white cotton makers label sewn inside it. The epaulettes are padded, and have padded embroidered rank stars attached to them. The cuffs have fabric tabs which are adjusted by a pair of press studs. Press studs are also used to fasten the overlapping front flap at the right shoulder, and to secure the epaulettes. The tabs of the stand and fall collar are stitched down at the front, and secured at the throat by a pair of hooks and eyes, the lower hook of which is missing. A pair of silk embroidered RFC pilot's wings are sewn on the (wearer's) left breast.

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, JD 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 in the late 1960s. 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.