WENDY Forrest remembers her father, Eric Dowling, as a kind, jovial man who was particularly sporty.
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Eric Dowling was educated at St Peters College in Adelaide, his occupation was listed as woolclasser and he enlisted as Private No 129 on September 2, 1914.
At age 19 this young man, part of the 3rd Light Horse Regiment, landed on the shores of Gallipoli to form the 1st Light Horse Brigade. The regiment played a defensive role throughout the campaign and was in reserve when its sister regimentwas attacked as part of the August offensive.
The brigade left Gallipoli on December 14, 1915 only to be redeployed to the Middle East in early 1916 as part of the Anzac Mounted Division.
After the Turks surrendered in 1818, Mr Dowling returned to Australia in 1919 virtually unscathed, apart from bouts of malaria that would recur throughout his life.
He took up a block on the Berthong Lane known as “Rothesay” in 1932. He retired in 1964 and passed away in 1973.
In this picture he is described by its photographer - pioneering aviator Ross Smith - as one of the best bomb throwers of the Allied forces at Quinns Post - the most advanced post of the Anzac line at Gallipoli.
In a letter to Mr Dowling’s wife Dove, Ross wrote, “Eric was one of our best bomb throwers and you will see he is in the act of lighting a bomb from the smouldering piece of rope that Ekins is holding. Ekins is also holding a periscope from which he will observe the destruction caused by Eric.”
“I might mention that the spot where they are standing is only 30 yards from the Turks and was known as the ‘hottest on the Peninsula’,” Ross wrote.
This picture is one of around 400 Mr Dowling retained from the war - all of which have been copied to a DVD to form part of the military section of the local museum.
Mrs Forrest told The Witness she thought it was a great idea for people to view first hand a soldier’s experience of WW1.
She said although her father didn’t talk about the war, he did chronicle his four years in diaries - which were being transcribed.
She and her husband Jim will attend the dawn service here in Young tomorrow, as they have always done since their children were young.
And this year as they stand before Young Town Hall, Mrs Forrest’s cousins will be attending a dawn service at Gallipoli.
