53 Facts About Rupert Downes

The son of British Army officer Major Francis Downes, Downes joined the Army as a trumpeter while he was still at school.

Rupert Downes attended the University of Melbourne, graduating with his medical degrees in 1907 and a Doctor of Medicine degree in 1911.

Rupert Downes was commissioned as a captain in the Australian Army Medical Corps in 1908, and after the outbreak of the First World War he joined the First Australian Imperial Force in 1914 as its youngest lieutenant colonel.

Rupert Downes served in the Gallipoli campaign, and was appointed Assistant Director of Medical Services of the newly formed Anzac Mounted Division in 1916, which he combined with the post of ADMS AIF Egypt.

Rupert Downes became a foundation fellow of the College of Surgeons of Australasia in 1927, and president of the Victorian branch of the British Medical Association in 1935.

Rupert Downes lectured on medical ethics at the University of Melbourne, writing the course textbook.

Rupert Downes was Victorian state commissioner of the St John Ambulance Brigade, which he led for 25 years, and president of the St John Ambulance Association for eight years.

In 1934 Rupert Downes became Director General of Medical Services, the Australian Army's most senior medical officer, with the rank of major general.

Rupert Downes oversaw the construction of major military hospitals in the capital cities.

Rupert Major Downes was born on 10 February 1885 in Mitcham, South Australia.

Rupert Downes was educated at Haileybury in Melbourne as a boarding school student.

Rupert Downes was commissioned as a captain in the Australian Army Medical Corps on 1 July 1908 and promoted to major on 26 March 1913.

Rupert Downes served his residency at Melbourne Hospital and became a general practitioner in Malvern, Victoria, but soon returned to the university to pursue a doctorate.

Rupert Downes did the coursework for a Master of Surgery, and this degree was conferred in 1912.

Rupert Downes married Doris Mary Robb on 20 November 1913 at St John's Church, Toorak, Victoria.

Rupert Downes joined the Australian Imperial Force on 2 October 1914, shortly after the outbreak of the First World War, assuming command of the 2nd Light Horse Field Ambulance with the rank of lieutenant colonel; this made him the youngest officer of that rank in the AIF at the time.

Rupert Downes therefore had to travel back and forth to Cairo.

An inquiry into the matter was held after the battle, at which Rupert Downes was called to testify.

On 10 August 1917, Rupert Downes became Deputy Director of Medical Services of the Desert Mounted Corps, while still retaining the post of ADMS AIF Egypt.

In October 1918, with victory near, Rupert Downes was confronted by his most serious medical crisis.

Rupert Downes appointed the DADMS of the Australian Mounted Division, Major W Evans, as Principal Medical Officer of Damascus, and gave him orders to organise the medical arrangements, bury the dead and provide care for the living.

Rupert Downes became an honorary consulting surgeon at the Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne, and Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital, and honorary surgeon at Prince Henry's Hospital.

Rupert Downes was a founding fellow of the College of Surgeons of Australasia in 1927, and became president of the Victorian branch of the British Medical Association in 1935.

Rupert Downes established a reputation as one of Melbourne's leading paediatric surgeons, but found himself in disagreement with certain medical practices then in vogue.

Rupert Downes lectured on medical ethics at the University of Melbourne from the late 1930s until his death in 1945, and wrote a course textbook on the subject, entitled Medical Ethics, which was published in 1942.

Rupert Downes published an article in the Journal of the British Army Medical Corps entitled "The Tactical Employment of the Medical Services in a Cavalry Corps" in 1926, which he expanded into one of the chapters of the Official History.

Rupert Downes's manuscript proved too long for the proposed book, and was extensively edited by Butler before it was published in 1930.

Rupert Downes was instrumental in supporting Butler's Medical Series and helped obtain the funding necessary to complete the project.

Rupert Downes was chairman of the Masseurs' Registration Board, a councillor of the Victorian division of the Australian Red Cross, and chairman of the Red Cross National Council.

Rupert Downes was Victorian State Commissioner of the St John Ambulance Brigade for 25 years.

Rupert Downes was president of the St John Ambulance Association for eight years, and chairman of the Victorian Civil Ambulance Service from 1937 to 1938.

Rupert Downes later served as a member of its council from 1942 to 1953.

Rupert Downes was instrumental in persuading the state branches to come together as a national organisation, arguing that without a national body, the organisation would be eclipsed by the Red Cross.

Rupert Downes became a colonel in the Australian Army Medical Corps on 8 January 1920.

Rupert Downes was DDMS of the 3rd Military District from 1 July 1921 to 26 June 1933, and Officer in Charge of Voluntary Aid Detachments from 1 July 1921 to 15 March 1940.

Rupert Downes served as head of the medical services of the Royal Australian Air Force.

Rupert Downes was honorary surgeon to the Governor General of Australia from 1 July 1927 to 30 June 1931.

On 20 August 1934 Rupert Downes became DGMS, a full-time post and the Army's most senior medical officer.

Rupert Downes's priority was a recruiting campaign to increase the number of medical professionals in the Army.

Rupert Downes was acutely aware that a large Army would require mobilisation of the country's doctors, and pushed for all doctors to be prepared for either military service or direction by civil authorities.

Rupert Downes presided over a major effort to stockpile drugs and medical equipment required for a mobilisation.

In 1939, Rupert Downes began a tour of military and other medical centres in India, the Middle East, the United Kingdom, France, the United States and Canada.

Rupert Downes foresaw a major war, fought in the islands to the north of Australia.

The outbreak of the Second World War caused Rupert Downes to curtail the North American leg of his tour and return to Australia in October 1939.

Rupert Downes argued that, after the war, they should be handed over to the Repatriation Department for the care of sick and disabled ex-service personnel.

The Minister for the Army, Percy Spender decided to pay a visit to the Middle East to see the situation for himself but before he did so, he resolved that Rupert Downes should become Director of Medical Services, AIF.

On returning to Australia, Spender appointed Major General Frederick Maguire as DGMS and Rupert Downes was appointed to the newly created post of Inspector General of Medical Services.

Rupert Downes became the DMS of the Second Army on 6 April 1942.

Rupert Downes joined the Second AIF as a major general on 27 June 1942, receiving the AIF serial number VX57673.

Rupert Downes was the DMS of the Second Army until 22 August 1944.

Rupert Downes became the third most senior Australian officer to die in the Second World War, after General Sir Brudenell White, who died in the Canberra air disaster in 1940, and Lieutenant General Henry Wynter, who died from natural causes on 7 February 1945.

Rupert Downes was working on the fourth and final volume, on the Medical Services of the RAN and RAAF, when he was compelled to quit in November 1956 due to ill-health, and he died in January 1958.

The subject of the lecture is "related to some aspect or aspects of military surgery, medical equipment, the surgery of children, neurosurgery, general surgery, medical ethics or medical history; these being subjects in which Rupert Downes was particularly interested".