Branch of Service

Army

Conflict

World War I (1914-1918)

Date of Enlistment

07/10/1916

Date of Discharge

27/07/1919

Place of Enlistment

Melbourne, Victoria

Gender

Male

Date of Birth

20/03/1891

Place of Birth

Geelong, Victoria

Address (at enlistment)

Acton ACT (Gisbourne, Victoria on the Embarkation Roll)

Occupation

Surveyor

Next of Kin

David Donnell (friend), Gisbourne, Victoria

Service Number

3277

Final Rank

Private

Final Unit

3 Pioneer Battalion

Ernest Dowling worked as an assistant to surveyors in Canberra from at least 1910. He was working with surveyor John C. Drury Reid in the Territory from 1913 and lived at Acton, until he enlisted with the 3rd Division Pioneers on 7 October 1916 in Melbourne. He arrived in France in March 1918 and was admitted to hospital in December with suspected tuberculosis. He returned to Australia in June 1919 and was discharged on 27 July 1919. Dowling continued to work in Canberra after the war, served in World War 2 from March 1941 and died on 13 August 1971. He is buried in Woden Cemetery. A trig station on a hill near Uriarra is named after him (map reference 735951).

Description - height 5 feet 7½ inches, weight 129 pounds, chest 32-35 inches, fair complexion, blue eyes, fair hair, Catholic.

National Archives (A202) 1914/4381 Full names of Officers and Employees, Federal Territory Salaries Register
NAA RecordSearch - Series B2455 (First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920)
Lyall Gillespie, 'Canberra 1820-1913', AGPS 1991 (p.270)
National Library of Australia: Country Women's Association of NSW (Canberra Branch) History, 1959 (manuscript call no. NLA MS 734)
NLA digital collection : http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-vn3534314-v , http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-vn4666000-v