Lieutenant, 3rd/5th Battalion Highland Light Infantry.
Died of illness, 24th January 1916, age 25.
Buried in Knutsford Cemetery.
Former student (special course, subject unknown)
Robert, the eldest of two son’s of Robert Manners Downie and Elizabeth Henderson Allan Downie, was born in Glasgow in 1891 He attended Glasgow Academy and also studied abroad. In 1906/07 he attended a special course at Manchester University. He went became a Director at R.M. Downie & Co., a shipper, in Manchester. In 1910 he went to India where he was engaged in business for five years.
Whilst in India Robert joined the Bombay Light Horse. He returned to England hoping to serve his country in the war, but was rejected on medical grounds. However in early June 1915 he was accepted as a 2nd Lieutenant into the Highland Light Infantry and promoted to Lieutenant in the autumn. Whilst attending a course at Leeds he fell ill and died 3 days later in 2nd Northern Military Hospital, on 24th January 1916, of meningitis.
Andrew Downie Marshall, Robert’s uncle and a major in the same regiment, was killed at Gallipoli in July 1915. Robert’s younger brother, Reginald, was killed in action on 24th March 1918 near Morval in France while serving with the Cameron Highlander Regiment.