Allan and Dorothy Downes

Lalage writes “here is a photo of my grandmother Dorothy Frances Downes (nee Long) and one of my grandfather – whom I never met.”

Lalage’s mother (Dorothy Cambell) was the elder sister of the twins pictured below, daughter of Allan John Downes and Dorothy Long. Andrew, who wrote the journals, was best man at their wedding and wrote plenty about them in his journals.

Portsmouth, July 16 2014

  Several of the journals written by Andrew Downes (see December 2012 below) were in their own display cabinet at an exhibition called “Racing to War” at the museum in Portsmouth Dockyard. It seemed a good idea to try to arrange for interested Downes relatives to get together to meet each other and visit the exhibition.

As far as I am concerned it was worth the considerable effort involved. At one time it seemed there might be 25 of us, but in the end the following fifteen came:

Descendant of Jane Todd, elder sister of Rev John Downes

Kate and Ian Aldous

Descendants of Edith Downes (dau of Rev John Downes)

Cynthia Strickland (dau of Œnone)

Robert Houseman

Fiona Bennett (sister of the above)

Cherry Conway-Hughes

Descendants of Theodosia Downes (dau of Rev John Downes)

Arthur Carden

Shane James

Michael Carden

Descendants of Constance Sawbridge Downes* (g-dau of Rev John Downes)

Robert & Mariquita Hichens

Antony Hichens

Descendants of Allan John Downes* (g-son of Rev John Downes)

Lamorna Lee (née Cambell),

Lalage Cambell

Descendants of Dorothy Isobel Downes* (g-dau of Rev John Downes)

Tim & Liz Le Grice

The picture shows Matthew Sheldon, responsible for the exhibition, telling Tim, Lamorna, Robert, Kate and others that the journals are of great interest to naval historians. Two of the 24 volumes are in front of him.

(This posting will be improved when more photographs and comments are received.)

Alan Sawbridge Downes 1914-1963

In Portsmouth someone mentioned the Swordfish aircraft. This led to my discovery of the website http://www.dnw.co.uk/auction-archive/catalogue-archive/lot.php?auction_id=28&lot_id=23494 where a good deal of information appears about Alan Sawbridge Downes 1914-1963, Commander, DSO, RN. He was a son of Allan John Downes (who was an elder brother of Andrew Downes, author of the journals), twin of Humphrey.

He lived an amazing life, shot down in Holland in 1940, escaping, then surviving the sinking of HMS Courageous and becoming one of the famous Swordfish pilots who were based in Malta.

The website gives details of the sale of his medals in 2000. When I told Roy about it he wrote:

I learnt more about my father’s wartime exploits from the auctioneer’s description than I ever heard firsthand. Like many servicemen he was very reticent to speak about his experiences.

A couple of details have always stuck in my memory – he always said he owed his life to the fact that Swordfish (stringbags) were so incredibly slow, flying at between 95 knots and 110 knots depending on headwind, that the Luftwaffe pilots in Messerschmitts never realised just how slow the Swordfish were and invariably fired well ahead (and therefore missed) and then rapidly and unexpectedly overtook the Swordfish…which then had a very good chance to shoot down the German planes.

The other was an incomplete story about an adventure in Holland (presumably after his plane came down at Overflakke) when he ended up “liberating” industrial diamonds with the Dutch resistance – possibly in Rotterdam. He said that the Germans were only “one block away”. Somewhere I may have a handwritten account of this event.

We have a photo of my father accompanying a very young Princess Elizabeth on the steps of the control tower at RNAS Hal Far. The Captain of the station at the time was “Streamline” Robertson (so called because of the shape of his nose). Streamline was a stickler for detail and he objected to the amount of putty in the window glazing of “my father’s” control tower. So before the next Sunday's Captain’s Rounds some putty was removed. Not enough for Streamline’s eye however. My father was duly reprimanded for this shortcoming. More putty was removed. The following Sunday the same indignation….orders not being followed etc. Having noted which window Streamline habitually tapped my father arranged for ALL the putty from that particular pane to be removed. Streamline duly complained again and tapped the pane forcefully in his rage….and of course the glass fell out and smashed on the tarmac 20 feet below. Father always said that was what scuppered his chances of promotion to Captain!

Regarding the medals: I remember my mother telling me that she was going to sell them and that was probably in the late 1980’s or early 1990. It was while she was living at Castle Marina in Lee and before she moved to a nursing home. Pip died in 1994. However she did not sell the miniature set (mess dress medals) and I still have these.

This copy of a photograph of the twins contained in the file held by Shane was made by Lalage in Portsmouth.