INDENTCaptain Cyril Percy Downer, born 1877, was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant Northamptonshire Regiment 1899 and served during the South African War 1899-1901; employed with the Mounted Infantry he took part in the advance on Kimberley, the actions at Belmont, Enslin, Modder River and Magersfontein including those at Venterskroon, Lindley and the Rhenoster River in the Transvaal and in the Orange River Colony

Captain Downer was granted his Royal Aero Club certificate 29 August 1913, one of the first R.F.C. pilots - he was killed while flying a B.E.2 tractor biplane from the Central Flying School, Upavon 10 March 1914. From a height of 2,000 feet his machine descended in an almost vertical rotating dive until some 500 feet from the ground, when the right hand pair of wings collapsed and the wreckage dived into the earth. (The History of British Aviation page 101 refers)