Richard Thornton Down
From The Dreadnought Project
Captain Richard Thornton Down, C.V.O., D.S.O. (11 December, 1882 – 22 August, 1944) was an officer in the Royal Navy. He served in the South African War and in China in 1900. He served as gunnery officer of the dreadnought battleship H.M.S. Neptune at the Battle of Jutland. From 1922 to 1926 he served as the Naval Attaché to Italy, before retiring in 1928. Upon the outbreak of the Second World War he returned to duty, commanding a naval depôt in Scotland, before dying on active service in 1944.
On 27 June, 1914 Down was appointed first and gunnery Lieutenant-Commander of the dreadnought battleship H.M.S. Neptune, in which he served at the Battle of Jutland on 31 May, 1916.
