Lieutenant Peter DOWMAN (182137)
C Company, 1st Battalion Royal East Kent Regiment (The Buffs)

Date of birth: 1st December 1921
Date of death: 15th December 1942

Killed in action aged 21
Commemorated on the Alamein Memorial Panel 55
He was born at Herne Bay on the 1st of December 1921, the son of Ernest Alan Dowman, mining engineer, and Birdie Gwendoline (nee Ingersoll) of 'Seasalter', Lee on Solent, Hampshire.

He was educated at King's Leigh, Tankerton, and at the King's School Canterbury from May 1936 to July 1939, where he was in Marlowe House.

On the outbreak of war despite being only 17, he enlisted in the East Kent Regiment and was later sent for officer training following which he was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the East Kent Regiment (The Buffs) on the 12th of April 1941. He went overseas in September 1941 where he was posted to the 1st Battalion of his regiment.

His Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Colonel G.H.G. Smith-Dorrien DSO wrote:-

"We marked him down as an obvious leader of the sort likely to be the best possible officer in action-how right that proved. He went to C Company, at first to command a mortar platoon, but later the carrier platoon which he led in action. As Bereridge my intelligence officer was wounded and as I had taken a very strong personal liking to Peter, I asked him to take it on. He did his level best but obviously hated it because he wanted to be with and commanding the men. I realised that it was wrong to keep him from them, and at the time said (although not to him) "he is the best platoon commander I have got" on the strength of which he started with his new Carrier Platoon. throughout the constant battling at Alamein, Galal, Fuka and Mersa Matruh I heard nothing but good things of him, and wondered how soon the chance would come to put him in for a decoration; a chance which never came until the day of his death when, had he lived, he would most certainly got an M.C. (which cannot be given posthumously). I know no officer whose men are more ready to follow him blindly, and this is no exaggeration-they worshipped him. The battle through the last stages of our fight into the open 15 miles west of Aghelia was a severe one, with C Company under heavy shelling and the Carrier Platoon fighting forward with the tanks. Peter with his two carriers saw that the right flank of our tanks had passed a number of German dug in infantry positions near the coast road. Evidently some had their hands up. it was so like him to decide to go further to the right to go and have a crack at them to mop them up, even when it meant risking crossing the foot of a hill from which he knew enemy A/Tank guns were firing at our tanks. It was a sporting chance which would have helped our advance; he took a cheerful decision and met a very gallant end."

In his recommendation of one of Dowman's men for the Military Medal Colonel Smith-Dorrien wrote:-

"Lieut. Dowman, seeing German infantry in outpost positions north of him, led his carriers to mop them up and take some prisoners. When his carriers were halted about 200 yards apart, his own being farthest from the hill, he went on foot from his carrier to shout orders to the other. It was then he received his mortal wound."

He was mentioned in despatches in the London Gazette of the 13th of January 1944.

He is commemorated on the war memorial at Whitstable.

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