No.5879 – Private Charles Alfred Dowdey – 2nd Pioneer Battalion
Charles was born in Port Adelaide South Australia in 1883. Charles was working as a Lumper in Fremantle when war was declared and he lived at Trades Hall Fremantle. After Peter was killed in Belgium in June 1917, Charles went to the Fremantle Drill Hall to enlist in the AIF. He was found to be fit for service with the medical examiner recording Charles’s physical attributes as; 5 feet 7 inches in height; weight of 147lbs; chest measurement of 32-34 inches, dark complexion, dark eyes and dark hair. Charles also had a tattoo of a horse’s head on his chest. His religious denomination was Baptist.
After initial training at the Blackboy Hill Training Depot, Charles was assigned to the 13th Reinforcements to the 2nd Pioneer Battalion AIF. He trained in WA for several months and it was only on the 8th May 1918 that he boarded the HMAT Port Darwin in Albany and set sail. On the 7th June Charlie arrived at Suez. He spent the next month in Egypt and on the 3rd July he travelled to Alexandria where he boarded another troopship bound for England. Charlie arrived at Southampton on the 16th July 1918 and after being disembarked he was sent to the Pioneer Training Battalion at Sutton Veny Camp.
Charlie was still in Camp when the Armistice was signed and though the war was now over he was nevertheless sent to France on the 25th January 1919. He was assigned to the 2nd Pioneer Battalion but was then transferred to the 2nd Division Monuments Party and then to the Australian War Graves section.
Charlie worked with the Australian War Graves section for the majority of 1919. In November 1919 at Peronne he was involved in an incident where he was shot in the leg by a French civilian. It was classed as an accidental injury and after treatment at the 58th Casualty Clearing Station, and a seven week stay in hospital Charlie resumed his duties in France.
Charlie worked in France for the War Graves Section until May 1920 when he returned to England. On the 19th June 1920 Charlie boarded the HMAT Orontes and set sail for Australia. He arrived in Fremantle on the 24th July 1920 and after a medical check up at No.8 AGH in Fremantle he was given a clean bill of health as it appeared that his bullet wound had fully healed.
Charles Dowdey was discharged from the AIF on the 27th August 1920.
He was living a 123 Marmion Street Fremantle.
Charles Dowdey died in Fremantle on June 11th 1938.
