Rupert Downes Major General Rupert Major Downes CMG , KStJ , VD , FRACS ( 10 February 1885 – 5 March 1945 ) was an Australian soldier , general , surgeon and historian in the first half of the 20th century . Downes attended the University of Melbourne , graduating with his medical degrees in 1907 . He returned to the university to pursue a Doctor of Medicine degree , which was awarded in 1911 . The son of an Army officer , Downes joined the Army as a trumpeter while he was still at school . He was commissioned as a captain in the Australian Army Medical Corps in 1908 , and joined the First Australian Imperial Force ( AIF ) in 1914 as its youngest lieutenant colonel . He served in the Gallipoli campaign , and was appointed Assistant Director of Medical Services ( ADMS ) of the newly formed ANZAC Mounted Division in 1916 , which he combined with the post of ADMS AIF Egypt . In 1917 , he became Deputy Director of Medical Services ( DDMS ) of the Desert Mounted Corps . After the war , he wrote articles on medical aspects of the Sinai and Palestine Campaign , and the section on the campaign for the official history . Returning to Australia , 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 . He 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 . He lectured on medical ethics at the University of Melbourne , writing the course text book . He was also Victorian State Commissioner of the St . John Ambulance Brigade , which he led for 25 years , and was president of the St John Ambulance Association for eight years . In 1934 Downes became Director General of Medical Services , the Australian Army ' s most senior medical officer , with the rank of major general . He oversaw the construction of major military hospitals in the capital cities . In 1944 he accepted a commission to edit the medical series volumes of the Official History of Australia in the War of 1939 – 1945 but was never able to do so as he was killed in a plane crash in 1945 . Education and early life . Rupert Major Downes was born on 10 February 1885 in Mitcham , South Australia . He was the youngest of fifteen children of Colonel Major Francis Downes — a British Army officer — and his wife Helen Maria , formerly Chamberlin , only five of whom survived to adulthood . After service in the Crimean War , Colonel Francis Downes served as commandant of the Colonial forces of South Australia and Victoria and retired with the rank of major general in the Australian Army in 1902 . Rupert was educated at Haileybury , Melbourne as a boarding student . In March 1901 , at the age of 16 , he joined the Victorian Horse Artillery ( St Kilda Battery ) , a part - time volunteer militia unit , as a trumpeter . In May 1901 he served in this capacity at the opening of the inaugural Parliament of Australia by The Duke of Cornwall and York at the Royal Exhibition Building . In 1903 , Downes became a medical student at the University of Melbourne . A good result in his first year examinations earned him a residential scholarship to Ormond College , and he graduated with the double degree of Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery ( MBBS ) in 1907 . Soon after graduation , Downes enlisted in the Militia . He was commissioned as a captain in the Australian Army Medical Corps on 1 July 1908 and was promoted to major on 26 March 1913 . He served his residency at Melbourne Hospital and became a general practitioner in Malvern , Victoria , but soon returned to the university to pursue a doctorate . His Doctor of Medicine ( MD ) thesis , entitled " The anatomical relations of the Thymus , especially considered in regard to thymic death with an account of cases of abnormality " , was accepted in 1911 . He also did the coursework for a Master of Surgery ( MS ) , and this degree was conferred in 1912 . Downes married Doris Mary Robb on 20 November 1913 at St John ' s Church , Toorak , Victoria . They had three children : Rosemary Major , born in 1914 ; Valerie Major , born in March 1918 ; and John Rupert Major , born in 1922 . First World War . Downes joined the First Australian Imperial Force ( AIF ) on 2 October 1914 , assuming command of the 2nd Light Horse Field Ambulance with the rank of lieutenant colonel — making him the youngest officer of that rank in the AIF at the time . Soon after his taking command , the unit was renamed the 3rd Light Horse Field Ambulance . After training at the Broadmeadows Army Camp near Melbourne , the unit embarked for Egypt on the transport " Chilka " on 2 February 1915 . The 3rd Light Horse Field Ambulance departed Alexandria for Gallipoli on 17 May 1915 . It moved to Lemnos in June , where it operated a hospital , but returned to ANZAC Cove for the August offensive . Downes missed this operation , as he remained on Lemnos supervising the hospital until he returned to Anzac on 11 August . He remained with his unit until 13 November , when he departed for Lemnos and then Egypt . After the evacuation of Gallipoli , Downes was appointed Assistant Director of Medical Services ( ADMS ) of the newly formed ANZAC Mounted Division on 15 March 1916 . He was given the temporary rank of colonel , before substantive promotion on 20 February 1917 . Downes combined this post with that of ADMS AIF Egypt from 6 September 1916 . Downes therefore had to travel back and forth to Cairo . In November 1916 , a Deputy ADMS was appointed to assist him . Medically speaking , the health of the Anzac Mounted Division was remarkably good , but the Sinai Peninsula still had its challenges — especially for medical officers unfamiliar with conditions in the Middle East . The Battle of Romani revealed the importance of transportation in an area with few roads . A poorly - organised casualty evacuation effort caused a great deal of preventable hardship and suffering for the wounded , and resulted in a number of avoidable deaths . An inquiry into the matter was held after the battle , at which Downes was called to testify . The Commander in Chief if the Egyptian Expeditionary Force ( EEF ) , General Sir Archibald Murray , declined to assign blame to any individual , but implemented the inquiry ' s recommendations for improving the casualty evacuation process . There was also the heat , and the problem of supplying adequate quantities of potable water . Diseases included cholera , typhus and bilharzia . To combat these , Downes obtained the services of the Lieutenant Colonel Charles James Martin , and created the Anzac Field Laboratory to investigate these diseases . As a result of aggressively tackling the problem , Downes reduced rates of disease among Australian and New Zealand troops well below those of British troops serving alongside them . Martin advanced the notion that heat exhaustion and heat stroke were not the result of defective evaporation , as had previously been believed , but simply a matter of failing to drink enough water . He in turn converted Downes to the belief that " provided water is available in adequate amount the heat mechanism of the body can defy all ordinary climatic ranges of temperature even under conditions of hard work . " With so many people and horses , sanitation was a challenge , and discipline in this area was initially slack , as it had been with disastrous results at Gallipoli . Downes took measures to improve the situation . Although not normally one to engage in disputes , Downes repeatedly clashed with the British medical officers of the EEF , especially the DMS EEF , Colonel Alfred Keble , whose attitudes Downes regarded as endangering his troops . Doris travelled to Egypt to visit her husband in March 1917 . By June , Rupert was becoming increasingly immersed in preparations for the Third Battle of Gaza and Doris , who had become pregnant during her visit , decided to return home . On her return journey to Australia in June 1917 , her ship , the P & O liner " Mongolia " struck a mine and was sunk in the Indian Ocean with the loss of 23 lives . Doris spent 11 hours in a crowded lifeboat , before being rescued by a passing steamer , which took her to Bombay . From there she eventually made her way back to Australia via Singapore and Batavia . In 1918 Doris was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire ( OBE ) for her volunteer work among soldiers ' families as secretary of the Friendly Union of Soldiers ' Wives and Mothers . On 10 August 1917 , Downes became Deputy Director of Medical Services ( DDMS ) of the Desert Mounted Corps , while still retaining the post of ADMS AIF Egypt . He was therefore answerable to three superiors — to Lieutenant General Harry Chauvel , the commander of the Desert Mounted Corps and AIF Egypt ; to Major General Neville Howse , the DMS AIF in London ; and to the new British DMS EEF , Major General William Travers Swan . As the EEF advanced into Palestine , the major medical problem remained transportation . During the operations in the Es Salt area , Downes experimented with the delivery of drugs and medical supplies by air . In the Jordan valley in 1918 , however , Downes was confronted with an epidemic of malaria and vigorous preventative and prophylactic efforts were required in order to bring it under control . In October 1918 , with victory near , Downes was confronted by his most serious medical crisis . Damascus contained over 3 , 000 sick and wounded Turkish soldiers , many of them in appalling condition . 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 . The task was made more difficult by the poor communications and transport shortages , which hampered the delivery of supplies and evacuation of the hospitals ; by shortages of medical units ; and by the actions of Lieutenant Colonel T . E . Lawrence , who was more concerned with establishing the political authority of Hussein bin Ali , Sharif of Mecca over Damascus . At this point the Desert Mounted Corps itself began to experience epidemic diseases , particularly of bronchopneumonia , cholera and malaria , putting the medical services under enormous pressure . Through extraordinary measures , including the diversion of lighthorsemen and motor vehicles to medical units , Downes managed to evacuate the sick to Beirut , and the crisis abated . For his service in the Sinai and Palestine Campaign , Downes was mentioned in despatches four times , and was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George on 1 January 1918 . His citation read : Interwar years . Returning to Australia , Downes was discharged from the AIF , but remained in the Army as a reservist . He 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 . He 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 . He established a reputation as one of Melbourne ' s leading paediatric surgeons , but found himself in disagreement with certain medical practices then in vogue . In a 1922 paper published in the " Medical Journal of Australia " , he examined 100 cases of tonsillectomy in children , and concluded that the majority of them were unnecessary . It would be another four decades before the medical profession in Australia accepted this . He lectured on medical ethics at the University of Melbourne from the late 1930s until his death in 1945 , and wrote a course text book on the subject , entitled " Medical Ethics " , which was published in 1942 . In addition to his medical writings , Downes wrote a book - length section on the Sinai and Palestine campaign for Volume I of the " Official History of the Australian Army Medical Services in the War of 1914 – 1918 " in the late 1920s under the direction of Medical Series editor Graham Butler . The two men had discussed the prospect during a visit Butler made to Egypt in 1918 to inspect the medical records of the AIF , and again in France in 1919 . 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 was expanded into one of the chapters of the Official History . Downes ' manuscript proved too long for the proposed book , and was extensively edited by Butler before it was published in 1930 . Downes was instrumental in supporting Butler ' s Medical Series and helped obtain the funding necessary to complete the project . 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 . He was Victorian State Commissioner of the St . John Ambulance Brigade for 25 years . He was also president of the St John Ambulance Association for eight years , and chairman of the Victorian Civil Ambulance Service from 1937 to 1938 . In 1930 , he was appointed a Commander of the Venerable Order of Saint John , and later became a Knight of Grace of the order in 1937 . At the same time , Doris became an Officer of the Order of Saint John , in recognition for her fund raising efforts for the Victorian branch . She also later served on the as a member of its council from 1942 to 1953 . Downes was instrumental in persuading the various state branches to come together as a national organisation , arguing that without a national body , the organisation would be eclipsed by the Red Cross . In 1930 , Downes ' son John , then in his first year as a boarder at Geelong Grammar School , fell seriously ill with meningitis . Despite the best efforts of two eminent medical practitioners , Dr Keith Fairley and Dr Reginald Webster , John succumbed to toxaemia and died in 1933 , at the age of 10 . The failure of modern medicine to save his son affected Downes deeply , and led him to abandon his medical career in favour of a military one . Downes remained in the Army throughout the inter - war period . He became a colonel in the Australian Army Medical Corps on 8 January 1920 . He was DDMS of the 3rd Military District ( Victoria ) from 1 July 1921 to 26 June 1933 , and Officer in Charge of Voluntary Aid Detachment s from 1 July 1921 to 15 March 1940 . He also served as head of the medical services of the Royal Australian Air Force ( RAAF ) . Although the RAAF had become a separate service in 1921 , the Minister for Defence decided in 1927 that the Army ' s Director General of Medical Services should be responsible for the administration of the RAAF ' s medical services . In this capacity , Downes was answerable to the Air Board . In addition , he was honorary surgeon to the Governor General of Australia from 1 July 1927 to 30 June 1931 . On 20 August 1934 Downes became Director General of Medical Services ( DGMS ) , a full - time post and the Army ' s most senior medical officer . His priority was a recruiting campaign to increase the number of medical professionals in the Army . The Munich Crisis caused people to believe that another war was imminent , and an Army - wide recruiting campaign led by Major General Sir Thomas Blamey doubled the size of the Army from 35 , 000 in 1938 to 70 , 000 in 1939 . Downes ' efforts at recruiting were far more modest . In 1934 , there were 299 part - time officers in the AAMC ; by 1939 there were 394 , and increase of only 32 per cent . This included 320 medical practitioners , 37 dentists and 13 pharmacists . 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 . He presided over a major effort to stockpile drugs and medical equipment required for a mobilisation . With the help of the Department of Health and the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories , most of this was delivered by July 1939 . In 1939 , Downes began a tour of military and other medical centres in India , the Middle East , the United Kingdom , France , the United States and Canada . While in London , he arranged for Doris and Valerie to be formally presented to the King and Queen at Buckingham Palace by Ethel Bruce , the wife of Stanley Bruce , the Australian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom . Downes foresaw a major war , fought in the islands to the north of Australia . While in London , he took steps to obtain the services as consultants of two eminent Australian physicians , the surgeon Sir Thomas Dunhill and Neil Hamilton Fairley , an expert on tropical diseases . The outbreak of the Second World War caused Downes to curtail the North American leg of his tour , and return to Australia in October 1939 . Second World War . Downes , in his role as DGMS , pressed for the construction of major military hospitals in the capital cities . He argued that , after the war , they should be handed over to the Repatriation Commission for the care of sick and disabled ex - service personnel . Despite strong opposition on the grounds of cost , Downes won his case in October 1940 . Time soon vindicated his judgement ; and today the major military hospitals in the state capital cities , the Concord Repatriation General Hospital in Sydney , the Austin Hospital in Melbourne and Greenslopes Private Hospital in Brisbane remain his greatest legacy . In late 1940 , medical units in the Middle East were experienced " precarious and at times acute " shortages of medicals stores . Units were sent to the Middle East as fully equipped as was possible , with the expectation that the British Army would make up the difference , but British policy was that all possible sources had to be exploited before any demands could be made on the United Kingdom ' s sources . General Sir Thomas Blamey , the Commander in Chief of the AIF , recognised this as something that had to be negotiated between the two governments , but medical officers in the Middle East blamed the Medical Services in Australia — and therefore Downes — for the situation . The Minister of 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 Downes should become Director of Medical Services , AIF ( Middle East ) . On arrival in the Middle East with the Chief of the General Staff , Lieutenant General Vernon Sturdee , Spender found that Blamey had already appointed Major General Samuel Burston to that post . This came as a surprise to them as they had not realised that Blamey had the authority to make such an appointment ; but on seeing the situation for himself , Spender confirmed Burston ' s appointment . On returning to Australia , Spender appointed Major General F . A . Maguire as DGMS and Downes was appointed to the newly created post of Inspector General of Medical Services ( IGMS ) . As IGMS , Downes toured extensively — he visited all the Australian states and overseas locations where Australian troops had been sent , including Papua and New Guinea , Malaya , the Middle East and North Africa , as well as the Netherlands East Indies ( Indonesia ) , India and East Africa . When Blamey reorganised the Army on his return to Australia in 1942 , he appointed Burston as Director General of Medical Services . Downes became DMS of the Second Army on 6 April 1942 . He joined the Second AIF as a major general on 27 June 1942 , receiving the AIF serial number VX57673 . Death and legacy . Downes held this post until 22 August 1944 . Due to the run - down of the Army , the Second Army , always mainly a paper organisation , increasingly had less and less to do . Now nearly sixty , he then accepted an invitation to write the medical history series of the official history of Australia in the war . As part of this , in March 1945 , he decided to accompany Major General George Alan Vasey to New Guinea , where Vasey ' s 6th Division had encountered an atabrine - resistant strain of malaria in the Aitape - Wewak campaign . On 5 March 1945 , the RAAF Lockheed Hudson aircraft they were travelling in crashed into the sea about from Machans Beach , just north of the mouth of the Barron River near Cairns . Downes and Vasey were killed along with all nine other Australian service personnel on board . Their bodies were recovered and buried in Cairns War Cemetery with full military honours . Downes was survived by Doris , Valerie and Rosemary . A memorial service was held at St Paul ' s Cathedral , Melbourne on 9 March 1945 . He 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 on 7 February 1945 . Downes ' papers are in the Australian War Memorial . The Royal Australasian College of Surgeons established the triennial Rupert Downes Memorial Lecture in his honour . The subject of the Lecture is " related to some aspect or aspects of military surgery , medical equipment ( military and civil ) , the surgery of children , neurosurgery , general surgery , medical ethics or medical history ; these being subjects in which Downes was particularly interested " . Source :