Orders, Decorations & Medals - Australian Groups

Lot 2457    SESSION 14 (2.30PM THURSDAY 28TH NOVEMBER)    Orders, Decorations & Medals - Australian Groups

Estimate $3,500
Bid at live.noble.com.au

DSO AND MID GROUP OF SIX: Distinguished Service Order (GVIR 1st cipher); 1939-45 Star; Burma Star; Italy Star; Defence Medal 1939-45; War Medal 1939-45 with MID. All medals unnamed as issued. Display court mounted, some light contact marks and cleaned, otherwise extremely fine.

Together with,
1) Parchment document for award of Distinguished Service Order to Francis John O'Dowd, Esquire, Captain (temporary Major) in Our Indian Army, dated 24 August 1944 and signed by George R.I., together with a seal stamped copy of the citation.
2) Official document for award of Mention in a Despatch.
3) Original DSO recommendation for an immediate award, by Lt-Col G.S.N. Hughes DSO, Comd 26 Ind Fd Ambulance.
DSO: Supplement to LG 24/8/1944, p3923 - to Captain (temporary Major) Francis John O'Dowd, M.R.C.S. (16976), Indian Army Medical Corps in recognition of gallant and distinguished services in Italy.
Citation: This officer displayed most conspicuous bravery and self-sacrificing devotion on 20th March 1944, during the fighting at Cassino. He was proceeding into Cassino when two soldiers stopped him, and informed that there was a wounded man laying the opposite side of the Rapido River; and that as he was in the middle of a minefield no help could be got to him. The conditions then were that the area was under constant and intense artillery, mortar, and nebelwerfer fire; and that both sides of the river were known to be extensively mined, including anti-personnel devices.
Having seen by reconnaissance where the casualty lay, Major O'Dowd crossed the first lot of mines and reached the river, carrying with him a stretcher and dressings. He then directed a stretcher bearer to follow his route. Making his way by the river, this officer came opposite the wounded man; and landed and again entered the minefield. Making his way through some 70 - 100 yards of this minefield by using shell holes, Major O'Dowd reached the casualty; and also succeeded in getting his assistant there.
The dressing of the wounded man took some twenty minutes, the whole time under intense enemy fire. Major O'Dowd with his assistant then carried back the casualty by the route which he had come; and in spite of the fire and other hazards finally reached comparative safety. The whole of this action took some two hours to perform, and no words can describe the grim and dangerous conditions under which Major O'Dowd performed this rescue operation. The casualty could not have lived much longer without the medical attention then given him.
The sheer cold-blooded heroism and devotion displayed by Major O'Dowd in performing this most brave act are worthy of the highest praise; and in carrying it out, he knew full well that the chances of his own survival were slight.
MID: Supplement to LG 5/8/1943, p3524 - to Capt. (temp. Maj.) F.J. O'Dowd, M.R.C.S. (16976), Indian Medical Services, in recognition of gallant and distinguished service in Persia-Iraq.
Francis John O'Dowd was an Australian doctor who served with distinction in World War II and then went to Jersey in 1947 to take over the medical practice of Dr Coutts who was retiring. He was also Divisional Surgeon of the Boy Cadets of St John Ambulance and was on duty at the Bel Royal corner in Jersey during a high speed road race practice session. Driver K.W. Bear was practising in his Bugatti on 27 April 1949 when it left the promenade at 100 MPH, when it failed to take a hairpin bend and crashed through a safety barrier with several people seriously injured and the driver, a policeman and Dr O'Dowd killed.
With research including various newspaper reports on the accident and the funeral of Dr O'Dowd.