John Dowland

Who was John Dowland?

Squadron Leader John Noel Dowland GC was awarded the George Cross, as was civilian armanent instructor Leonard Henry Harrison, for his gallantry in defusing a bomb which had fallen on the grain ship SS Kildare in Immingham docks on 11 February 1940. The bomb proved extremely difficult to defuse as it had embedded itself at an extreme angle in the main deck. The citation, which appeared in the London Gazette on 7 January 1941, noted that he displayed the same " conspicuous courage and devotion to duty in circumstances of exceptional danger and difficulty" when defusing a bomb on a trawler in June 1940.

He is buried in Capuccini Naval Cemetery, Malta.