Cecelia DOWNING

DOWNING, CECILIA (née HOPKINS) (b. Islington, England, 13 Jan 1858; d. Ivanhoe, Vic,30 Aug 1952). Baptist feminist.

Arriving in Melbourne, her parents settled with their infant daughter at Williamstown. After schooling, Cecilia Hopkins trained at Melbourne Teachers College. Baptised, she became a member of the Williamstown Baptist Church and in February 1885 married the pastor, the Rev John Downing, an Australian graduate of Spurgeon's College, London. After ministering at Kyneton, ill health compelled him to resign and take up banking. Country experience was followed by a return to Melbourne, where both joined the Collins St Baptist Church, of which Mrs Downing was a loyal member for 46 years, giving leadership in the church's women's activities.

For over 20 years she was a member of the Executive Council of the Baptist Union of Victoria She was a foundation member of the Victorian Baptist Women's Association, serving as secretary (1932-41), founder and first president of the Women's Board of the Baptist Union of Australia (1935-8) and thereafter honoured as a life-member of the Board. She was active in the formation of the Women's Committee of the Baptist World Alliance.

A woman with wide interests, she was keenly interested in national and international affairs, maintaining that 'the wider a woman's interests, the more good she can do in the community'. Though a strong feminist, she maintained, as the mother of seven children, that a woman's first loyalty was to her own home. During her life she championed the cause of women and children. Her keen mind and administrative ability were used in a wide range of activities, among which were: long-serving member of the Victorian WCTU (president, 1912- 15), from 1912 on the executive of the NCW of Victoria (honorary secretary, 1928-36, later life vice-president), from 1945 president of the Travellers' Aid Society, probation officer to the Children's Courts, member of the Women's Inter-Church Council which she helped to establish, member of the Good Neighbour Council and of the Pan Pacific Women's Standing Committee, and during World War One and Two an executive member of war loan and war certificate campaigns. She had a deep concern for the welfare of immigrants.

Melbourne knew her best as the president of the Housewives' Association. From 1938 this outspoken Christian lady challenged with considerable effect evils and abuses in the community that threatened life in the home. The press recognised the strength of her influence: 'a powerful woman, one to be reckoned with in the maelstrom of politics'. In 1940 she became Federal president of the Association. From early years she had laboured for women's franchise. When this was granted, she proposed that, since municipal government was nearer the home than any other, half the number of members of local councils ought to he women. She was a crusader to the end.

Invested with the MBE in February 1952, she died later that year at the age of 94.

Baptist Union Archives, Hawthorn, Victoria; B S Brown, Baptised into One Body (Melbourne, 1987), 66-7

BASIL S BROWN