Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Born 19th March 1895, Frank Arthur Dowling was the only child of Daniel Dowling and Rebecca nee Tomblin. He lived with his parents at 8 Charles Street, Norwood for the first 20 years of his life, before enlisting to go to war. Frank worked as a horse driver pre-war which prepared him for his important role in the army. He followed the Methodist church, which shared many of its beliefs with the orthodox church.

Frank Arthur Dowling enlisted to go to war on September 17th, 1915 in the Norwood area. Along with 39 other men embarked, for Egypt and the training camps, on the HMAT Medic on 20th May 1916, eight months after enlisting. When he had finished his training in the hot Egyptian desert he was sent to serve in France, where he served most of his time at war as driver for the 8th Field Artillery Brigade, which consisted of his unit, the 23rd Howitzer Brigade’s 108th Battery, the 29th Field Artillery Battery, the 30th Field Artillery Battery, the 31st Field Artillery Battery and the 8th Brigade Ammunition Column. Like all Australians Frank Arthur Dowling was an ANZAC. Every soldier that was an ANZAC was an Australian or New Zealander soldier. ANZAC stands for Australian New Zealand Army Corps.

All together he would have been fighting with 2500 to 5000 other men. His personal role was to drive the other men around. His brigade’s role was very important. They were to provide cover fire for the infantry men, to keep the enemies down in their trenches. This gave the infantry men a chance to get across no man’s land.

He wouldn’t have carried many weapons around with him. It is most likely that he would have carried a side-arm with him for protection, but no rifles, sub-machine guns or sniper rifles. His main offensive role would be helping the machine gunners with their guns and helped load the 105mm to 155mm shells into the massive artillery weapons. Some of these shells would have been as long as an adult human’s arms. He would have spent majority of his time at war a kilometre or so behind the frontline conflict. The covering fire would have lasted for 20 minutes before the unit would get relieved by the next unit.

As his unit was providing cover for units such as the 4th Australian Infantry Brigade in August 1917 it is very likely that he would have been a part of the Battle of Messines. The aim of this offensive by the British and Australian troops was to force the Germans to retreat from Vimy-Arras, a main battlefront in France. The main objective was Wyschaete-Messines Ridge in Belgium. The battle of Messines only lasted one day and yet it was the most complete success of any Western Front attack by the Allies up to that point in the war.

Frank Arthur Dowling won two medals, both being victory medals. The first being the Victory Medal awarded to all soldiers who fought in the winning side of the war, the Triple Entente, which consisted of countries such as France, Britain and Australia. The second medal was the British War Medal, which was only awarded to soldiers from Britain and its colonies.

After surviving just under four years enlisted in the army, Frank Arthur Dowling returned safely home to his home in Norwood, SA on board Borda on 11th May 1919 aged 24. He was discharged three months later on the 8th of August.

He passed away 28 years later at the age of 52. Frank Arthur Dowling is buried at the AIF Cemetery, West Terrace Cemetery in Section: KO, Road: 5, Site No: 19.