Life-saving Home Guard hero John will be missed

Published on Monday 30 November 2009 08:53

JOHN DOWNIE, a former member of the Home Guard who became chief accountant at Standard Life in Edinburgh, has died, aged 86.

Mr Downie was born on 29 December 1922 in Rangoon, Burma, to Scottish parents.

His father was a dockyard manager for the Irrawaddy Flotilla Company and when the family returned home on leave in 1933, they decided to settle in Crieff.

It was here that Mr Downie attended Morrison's Academy, where he made many lifelong friendships.

When the Home Guard was raised in May 1940, Mr Downie, aged 17, was a member of the Crieff detachment and he also served in St Andrews and Oban during his summer holidays that year.

In the same year, Mr Downie saved a boy from drowning in the River Earn and was awarded a Humane Society certificate.

He would later save another boy from drowning during the war while on leave in London.

Upon leaving school in 1941, he was presented with the Macrosty Medal, awarded according to votes from fellow pupils.

After enlisting in the Scots Guards, Mr Downie volunteered to transfer to the Indian Army and was commissioned into the Royal Indian Army Service Corps. He rose to the rank of Major and served in what is now Pakistan, Egypt and Iraq.

After his demob, Mr Downie moved to Edinburgh to start his accountancy training. He joined Standard Life in 1952 and received his chartered accountant qualification in 1958.

He started off as an accounting assistant and was eventuall appointed chief accountant in 1983, the first non-actuary to hold this appointment.

Mr Downie bought an Austin 7 in 1947, which he drove from London to Edinburgh.

The car then sat unused for many years, progressively gathering dust.

Despite good intentions to rebuild the car, it wasn't until he retired that Mr Downie managed to fix it up and start driving it again, with much help from his friends and the Austin group.

He enjoyed many weekends away with friends, taking the car to Austin 7 events throughout Scotland.

In 1995, Mr Downie was invited by the Indian Army to attend the quinnennial reunion of the Indian Army Service Corps. He then visited once again in 2000, this time with his wife Moira, with whom he had a son and a daughter.

In 2005, Mr Downie, along with fellow Morrisonian and Crieff resident Hubert Strathearn, produced a record of the Morrisonians who had died and/or who had been decorated in the Second World War.

He also ensured that the people's names were correctly recorded in the school's memorial hall by presenting them with a roll of honour.

Although he had not lived in Crieff for many years, Mr Downie returned regularly in his later years to meet up with old friends and to visit family.