A Worthing / Bicester interest pre-war Sussex Biker (Motor-Cyclist) Dunkirk Veteran & Indian Army Officer campaign and long service medal group of 5: Lieutenant Eric Edward Downing, Royal Indian Army Service Corps late Royal Army Ordnance Corps

- The 1939-1945 Star. No clasp
- The Africa Star. No clasp
- Defence Medal
- War Medal
- Efficiency Medal. GVI 1st issue, with 'Territorial' bar (Lieut. E. E. Downing. Indian. Army.)

An unusual instance of a British Territorial Army issue Efficiency Medal being named to an Officer in the Indian Army - and generally mostly indicative of a pre-war Territorial who was subsequently commissioned and later served as an Emergency Commissioned Officer in the Indian Army

Medals Verification: All of the medals confirmed as entitled & enumerated in Officers extant service record

- The 1939-45 Star: No clasp: Awarded for 1 days service in France 1939-40
- The Africa Star. No clasp: 1 days service on strength of a unit posted in qualifying area (1941-43)
- Defence Medal: 12 months aggregated service in overseas qualifying area from United Kingdom
- War Medal: Awarded for 28 days uniformed service in the Armed Forces
- Efficiency Medal. GVI 1st type 'Territorial': Awarded for 12 years service (war service counting double)

The Worthing Gazette issue of 24 February 1943, published the below following news article about Lieutenant Eric Edward Downing, of the Royal Indian Army Service Corps:

Quote,
 
Worthing Motor Cyclist

Married in Iraq

Lieutenant Eric Edward Downing, R.I.A.S.C., who was formerly well known in Worthing as a motor cyclist, was married last month at Baghdad, Iraq, to 'Sister' Margaret H. Wilson, also of the British General Hospital in Iraq.

Lieutenant Downing is the only son of the late Mr. Edward Downing. of London, and Mrs. C.W. Downing, now residing at Sompting. Lieutenant Downing is also the grandson of the late Mrs. Killingsworth and Councillor Richard Cobden Cox, of Brighton.

He was well known in Worthing, apart from business connections, as a former member of the Worthing Eagle Motor Cycle Club.

Lieutenant Downing joined the Territorials before the outbreak of war, and was posted to the R.A.O.C. He was sent with the B.E.F. to France, and was one of those evacuated from Dunkirk.

After a year in England he went to India in the O.C.T.U., and was commissioned shortly after reaching that country. He is now with the British General Hospital Services in Iraq and is expecting further promotion shortly.

Unquote.

Medals Verification: None of the medal rolls for any of the recipients medals are accessible in the public domain (as of writing), and WW2 British Army medal index cards are a notoriously incomplete series with the records of many regiments / corps having been lost / or not known to exist

Eric Edward Downing only son of Edward William Downing (a 'Shipping Agent') and Christine Mary Cox was a native of Steyning, Sussex, England, where he was born, 25 June 1916. At the time of the compilation of the 1921 National Census for England & Wales, Edward is recorded as a 'Visitor' living with his Mother 'Married' and older sibling sister, Thelma Christine Downing (b. 1909), at a residence located at, 77 Wellbourne Street, Hove, Sussex. In 1939, Eric together with his mother and sister, were then residing at, 33 Busticle Lane, Sompting, Sussex, England. Eric was a pre-war member of the Territorial Army. Following active service in France with the Royal Army Ordnance Corps, during which he held the rank of Private, he was subsequently evacuated from the beaches at Dunkirk in 1940. Evidently a good soldier, he was selected for officer training and sent to India in 1941, where he was granted an Emergency Commission, in the Indian Army, when on 29 October 1941, he was appointed a Lieutenant and posted to the Royal Indian Army Service Corps, with which corps he later served overseas in the Middle East. He married 'Sister' Wilson at Baghdad, Iraq, on, 1943. Eric Edward Downing is recorded to have died at Bicester, Oxfordshire, England, 19 December 2002

Uncommon to find British issue Efficiency Medals named to Officers of the Indian ARMY

Condition: Mostly about EF

Code: 25866