John Wallace Downie (1876 – 22 August 1940) served as High Commissioner of

Southern Rhodesia Southern Rhodesia was a landlocked self-governing British Crown colony in southern Africa, established in 1923 and consisting of British South Africa Company (BSAC) territories lying south of the Zambezi River. The region was informally kn ...

from 1930 to 1935.

Early life

The son of Christopher Downie, a Guard on the

Caledonian Railway The Caledonian Railway (CR) was a major Scottish railway company. It was formed in the early 19th century with the objective of forming a link between English railways and Glasgow. It progressively extended its network and reached Edinburgh an ...

and later Lanark Station Master, was born on 28 December 1876 in

Hutchesontown Hutchesontown is an inner-city area in Glasgow, Scotland. Mostly residential, it is situated directly south of the River Clyde and forms part of the wider historic Gorbals district, which is covered by the Southside Central ward under Glasgow ...

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

, emigrating to

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

in 1897 to work on the Cape Railways. Here he worked on the line in the construction process from Bechuanaland to Bulawayo. He worked for a time as a postmaster in

Francistown Francistown is the second largest city in Botswana, with a population of about 103,417 and 147,122 inhabitants for its agglomeration at the 2022 census. and often described as the "''Capital of the North''" or as the natives would have it “''T ...

Bechuanaland Protectorate The Bechuanaland Protectorate () was a British protectorate, protectorate established on 31 March 1885, by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (later the United Kingdom, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland) in So ...

. On 15 October 1899, following the declaration of the

Anglo-Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the Sout ...

, Downie volunteered to join the Francistown Defence Force under the leadership of Umfreville Percy Swinburne. In 1900 he returned to Glasgow in order to study, coming back to Africa in 1901. On his return, he was appointed secretary of a small mining company. Subsequently, he joined the firm of Haddon, Cotton & Butt, a

Rhodesian Rhodesia (, ), officially from 1970 the Republic of Rhodesia, was an unrecognised state in Southern Africa from 1965 to 1979, equivalent in territory to modern Zimbabwe. Rhodesia was the ''de facto'' successor state to the British colony of S ...

shipping and forwarding house, where he later rose to be managing director. He was interested in a number of gold mining ventures, and in addition to his firm acted as manager of the Portland Cement Works for some time. John Downie later sold his interests in the firm, and in 1920 he became manager of the Salisbury Farmer's Co-operative, holding this post till the period of the end of Chartered Company Rule in 1923.

Political career

Downie was a keen advocate of responsible government and served as treasurer of the Responsible Government Party. Subsequently he became Chairman of the

Rhodesia Party The Responsible Government Association (RGA), called the Rhodesia Party from 1923, was a political party in Southern Rhodesia. Founded in 1917, it initially advocated responsible government for Southern Rhodesia within the British Empire, as op ...

and was responsible for much of the work of party organisation. At the first general election for the

Southern Rhodesian Legislative Assembly The Legislative Assembly of Rhodesia was the legislature of Southern Rhodesia and then Rhodesia from 1924 to 1970. Background In 1898, the Southern Rhodesian Legislative Council, Southern Rhodesia's first elected representative body, was found ...

on 29 April 1924, he was elected with

Francis James Newton Sir Francis James Newton (1857 – 8 May 1948) was a senior colonial administrator in different parts of the British Empire, principally in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). Early life He was the son of Francis Rodes Newton (1827–1886), a ...

to the seat of Mazoe under the system of double member constituencies then in existence. On 1 September 1924, he was appointed to Premier Charles Coghlan's ministry as Colonial Secretary. On 2 January 1925, he became Minister of Agriculture and Lands and in this capacity he played an important part in popularising Rhodesian tobacco in London, in encouraging the cotton industry and in promoting agricultural co-operative efforts. Following the replacement of Coghlan by

Howard Unwin Moffat Howard Unwin Moffat (13 January 1869 – 19 January 1951) served as second premier of Southern Rhodesia, from 1927 to 1933. Early life Born in the Kuruman mission station in Bechuanaland (now in the Northern Cape province of South Africa), ...

as premier, on 14 October 1927, Downie was reshuffled into the portfolio of Mines and Public Works, but continued to take a considerable interest in agricultural affairs. John Downie was strongly critical of the management of the railways and several times clashed with the railway companies on that score. On the other hand, he was able to reach a satisfactory arrangement with the Chartered Company to solve the problems of simplifying the collection of mining revenue, and he took an important part in settling some of the differences between miners and farmers. In 1929 John Downie received the award of the

Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is a British order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George IV, George IV, Prince of Wales, while he was acting as prince regent for his father, George III, King George III. ...

(CMG). Elected for a second term as the single member for Mazoe in the 1928 general election, in late 1930 Downie was appointed to be Newton's successor as the second High Commissioner for Southern Rhodesia in London, and Downie subsequently resigned from the ministry and his legislative assembly seat on 30 October 1930. On 4 November 1930, he was granted retention for life of the title ''

The Honourable ''The Honourable'' (British English) or ''The Honorable'' (American English; see spelling differences) (abbreviation: ''Hon.'', ''Hon'ble'', or variations) is an honorific style that is used as a prefix before the names or titles of certain ...

''.

Later life

Downie served as High Commissioner for Southern Rhodesia in London until 1935, when he retired to become Chairman of

Rhodesia and Nyasaland Airways Rhodesia (, ), officially from 1970 the Republic of Rhodesia, was an unrecognised state in Southern Africa from 1965 to 1979, equivalent in territory to modern Zimbabwe. Rhodesia was the ''de facto'' successor state to the British colony of S ...

. He was a member of the Southern Rhodesian delegation to the Imperial Economic Conference at Ottawa in 1932. In 1939 he returned to the work of administrator as Controller of Suppliers. John Wallace Downie died on 22 August 1940 in Salisbury Hospital. He left considerable estate and in his will endowed the John Downie Bursaries for

Prince Edward School , streetaddress = , city = Harare , country = Zimbabwe , coordinates = , type = State school, boarding and day school , established = , headmaster = Dr. Aggrippa G. Sora , gender = Boys , lower_age = 13 , upper_age = 19 ...

and the

Girls High School Girls High School is a historically and architecturally notable public secondary school building located at 475 Nostrand Avenue in the Bedford–Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York City. It was built in 1886.''Brooklyn: a soup-to-nuts g ...

, Salisbury. He left a widow, Clara Mortimer Carrol (1884–1964) and two children, Clara Isabella Ross Downie (1912–1977) and Robert Gordon Downie (1918–1944).Death Notice Rhodesia 1942-44 Vol 67 No 183

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Downie, John Wallace 1876 births 1940 deaths Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George People from Gorbals Scottish emigrants to South Africa 20th-century Zimbabwean politicians 20th-century Scottish businesspeople Members of the Legislative Assembly of Southern Rhodesia Rhodesia Party politicians High Commissioners of Rhodesia to the United Kingdom