Major-General Rupert Major Downes CMG VD MS KStJ
Second Commissioner of St John Victoria District, 1920-1945
Rupert Downes was the youngest of fifteen children of the last Commandant of Victoria’s Colonial Army as it transitioned into the Australian Army at Federation. He studied medicine but also followed his father in a military career. He joined the Light Horse Field Ambulance for WW I, rising to the rank of Colonel as Assistant Director of Medical Services of the Australian Empire Force (Middle East). On return to Australia, he resumed his surgical career and was appointed Commissioner of St John Ambulance Brigade in Victoria, a post he held for a record 26 years.
In the period leading up to WW II he was appointed Director-General of Army Medical Services. He was responsible for medical preparations for the war, including approval for the big new Repatriation Hospitals in each state. He also gave the impetus for federating the disparate St John Districts to form the Australian Commandery. He was invested as a Knight of Grace in the Order of St John in 1937. He died in a military aircraft crash at Cairns in the closing stages of the War in the Pacific.
