Victory Medal with MID : Quartermaster Lieutenant M D Cowtan, Royal Army Medical Corps

Victory Medal with Mention in Despatches oak leaf. Impressed around edge with recipient's details.

Mawer Dougall Cowtan was born at Kensington, London in 1883. He emigrated to Australia and was working as a grazier in Tasmania when he enlisted in the AIF on 24 October 1914. After initial training he was assigned to 1 Australian Clearing Hospital as a private with the service number 1403, and embarked at Melbourne aboard HMAT Kyarra (A55) on 5 December 1914. After further training in Egypt, Cowtan landed at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915 with 1 Australian Casualty Clearing Station, and as a consequence of his efforts during the first days of the landing was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal.

In June 1915 Cowtan received a special mention in Divisional Orders for his conspicuous gallantry and valuable service in the period 25 April to 5 May. On 22 June he was evacuated to Egypt suffering from bronchitis. He returned to his unit on Gallipoli only to be evacuated again on 28 July to Alexandria, then on to England a week later, where he was treated in a London hospital and then at the Royal Mineral Water Hospital in Bath. He was discharged on 4 November with instructions to take leave. While still in England Cowtan was discharged from the AIF, on 6 February 1916, to be commissioned as a Quartermaster Lieutenant in the Royal Army Medical Corps. He returned to Australia soon after the end of the war.