DOWNING, CECILIA (1858-1952), temperance worker, community activist and
political organizer, was born on 13 January 1858 at Islington, London, second
child of Isaac Hopkins, plasterer, and his wife Mary, née Morgan. That year the
family emigrated to Melbourne where Isaac set up as a contracting plasterer.
Cecilia was educated at Trinity Girls' School, Williamstown, and the Training
Institution, Carlton. On receiving her primary teacher's certificate, she was
posted to Portarlington, but continued to play the organ and teach Sunday School
at Williamstown Baptist Church. On 12 February 1885 at her parents' Williamstown
home she married a pastor, John Downing (d.1939). After serving a further six
years (at Williamstown and Kyneton), John retired from the ministry and was
employed by the State Savings Bank of Victoria as a branch manager at Portland,
Horsham and Sale. The Downings returned to Melbourne in 1901.
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Australian Dictionary of Biography Online
Cecilia Downing was a leading figure in the Victorian women's movement in the early twentieth century, spreading her activities and influence over an enormous range of organisations. The daughter of Isaac and Mary (née Morgan) Hopkins, Downing was born in London and came to Australia in 1858. She obtained her Teaching Certificate from the Training Institution in Carlton and taught at Portarlington before marrying John Downing in 1885. The couple returned to Melbourne in 1901. Although she had seven children, Cecilia became heavily involved in women's groups and welfare work. She was one of Victoria's first child probation officers (1907) and was an officer bearer with both the Woman's Christian Temperance Union and the Australian Women's National League. From the 1920s, she devoted her energies to the Housewives Association (having become one of its earliest members in 1917) and served as its federal president from 1940-45 and Victorian president from 1938 until her death in 1952. On 8 June 1950 Cecilia Downing was appointed a Member of the British Empire for social welfare services in Victoria.
A member of the Collins Street Baptist Church for 46 years, she helped establish their Women's Guild in 1910 and the Victorian Baptist Women's Association in 1926. In 1935 she was elected foundation president of the Women's Board of the Baptist Union of Australia. She was also honorary secretary of the National Council of Women of Victoria (1928-1935) and foundation president of the National Travellers' Aid Society (1944), having been an executive member of the Victorian Society since 1920. During WWII she was also involved with the Australian Comforts Fund, the Victorian Council of Women's Emergency Service and the War Loan and War Savings Certificates Committee.
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12 February 1885
Married John Downing, they had seven children
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1906
Joined the Collins Street Baptist Church
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1907
One of the government's first child-probation officers
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1909
Recording secretary of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, Victoria
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1911
Founding superintendent of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union's immigration department
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1912 - 1915
President of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union
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1917
Vice-president of the Housewives' Co-operative Association (later Housewives' Association of Victoria)
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1920 - 1932
Executive Member, Travellers' Aid Society of Victoria
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1928
Australian Delegate to the Baptist World Alliance Conference in Toronto
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1928
Australian Delegate to the World's Woman's Christian Temperance Union in Lausanne
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1928 - 1936
Honorary Secretary, National Council of Women of Victoria
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1932 - 1940
Junior Vice President, Travellers' Aid Society of Victoria
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1932 - 1941
Secretary, Baptist Women's Association, Victoria
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1934 - 1943
President, Collins Street Baptist Women's Guild
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1935 - 1938
President of the Australian Baptist Women's Board
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1938 - 1952
President, Housewives Association of Victoria
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June 1940 - 1945
President, Federated Association of Australian Housewives
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1941 - 1942
President, Travellers' Aid Society of Victoria
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1944
President, National Travellers' Aid Society
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1945
President, Travellers' Aid Society of Victoria
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1947
President, National Travellers' Aid Society
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1949 - 1951
President of the Federated Association of Australian Housewives
View the full record at
Australian Women's Register