First pattern RAF tunic : Flying Officer V L Dowling, Royal Air Force

Royal Air Force officer's first pattern private purchase tunic with belt. The tunic, made of saxe blue wool gabardine, has a single vent at the rear, a pair of pleated breast patch pockets and a pair of expanding patch waist pockets. The pockets have flaps secured by brass RAF buttons, those on the breast having three pointed flaps, while those at the waist are square. A small inset coin pocket is located above the right waist pocket. There is an internal pocket with a button flap over the (wearer's) right breast, and a small slit watch pocket with a leather fob holder stitched above it on the left. The tunic is closed by four large brass RAF buttons, and the self fabric belt is sewn on at the rear and has a brass buckle with two claws. Four pairs of brown metal eyelets are let into the tongue of the belt for adjustment. The rank insignia of a Flying Officer (single gold braid ring) is carried on each lower sleeve, and a pair of gold bullion embroidered RAF pilot's wings are sewn above the left hand breast pocket. The tunic is lined with grey cotton fabric, the sleeves with white cotton. A white fabric label sewn inside the collar gives the makers details 'MARSHALL & CO., 57 & 58 Jermyn St., London, S.W.1', and is marked 'Lt Laidley Dowling Aug 18 RAF' in black ink.

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 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.

• First pattern RAF trousers : Flying Officer VL Dowling