The progress of Freemasonry in South Australia during the last three decades of the 1800's and subsequently was in no small part due to the dedication and zeal of Henry Edward Downer.
H.E. Downer - Lawyer, Parliamentarian, Freemason
Stipendiary Magistrate and Commissioner of the Court of Insolvency 1865-81
Member of the House of Assembly, South Australia 1881-96
Attorney-General of South Australia 1890
District Grand Junior Warden (E.C.) 1867-69
District Deputy Grand Master (E.C.) 1869-84
Deputy Grand Master, Grand Lodge of South Australia 1884-91
Past Grand Master (Hon.), Grand Lodge of South Australia 1891
Life and career
Henry Edward Downer was born 22 March 1836 in Portsmouth, England, the son of a tailor, Henry Downer, and his wife Jane (nee Field). The family arrived in South Australia in 1838. Henry junior was educated at Haire's Academy and admitted to the South Australian Bar as a legal practitioner in 1858. The following year he married Maria Hagger; they had one son and two daughters.
H.E. Downer was appointed a Stipendiary Magistrate, and served as Commissioner in the Court of Insolvency between 1865 and 1881, when he was elected to Parliament to represent the district of Encounter Bay. Downer continued to represent Encounter Bay in the House of Assembly until 1896. He served as Attorney-General from May to August in 1890.
In 1891 Chief Justice Way recommended that H.E. Downer be appointed Queen's Counsel. This was rejected by the Executive Council of South Australia as the Premier of the day believed Downer had behaved unfairly towards him in Parliament and had consistently gone out of his way to attack him. No QCs were appointed that year.
History has perhaps been unkind to H.E. Downer who was surpassed in political and perhaps professional legal life by his brilliant younger brother, Sir John William Downer (1843-1915).
Masonic Career
Henry Edward Downer was initiated in the United Tradesmen's Lodge No.853/583 E.C. (later No.4 S.A.C.). He served as Master of the Lodge for three terms in the years 1858-1860.
In September 1867 he was appointed District Grand Senior Warden. During Bro. Downer's term the foundation stone of the Freemasons Hall in Flinders Street was laid in 1869. He was then appointed District Deputy Grand Master in time for the ceremony of consecration and dedication of the new Hall for Masonic purposes in March 1870. Subsequent financial stringencies led to the loss of use of the Hall to Freemasonry from mid 1872 until it was purchased in 1881, largely as a result of fundraising efforts by Bro. Downer. In May 1881 he was elected an honorary member of the Lodge of Harmony No.505 E.C. (subsequently No.3, S.A.C.) for his Masonic services "especially in connection with the raising of funds for the purchase of the Freemasons' Hall".
RW Bro. Downer served as District Deputy Grand Master for 15 years, whilst Bro. Arthur Hardy was District Grand Master. On the formation of the Grand Lodge of South Australia in 1884 he was elected Deputy Grand Master and served seven years in that position.
In January 1891 the Grand Master, MW Bro. H.E. the Earl of Kintore, announced his intention to confer the rank of Past Grand Master upon RW Bro. Downer "in recognition of the very valuable services rendered by him to the Craft, more especially in connection with ... the Freemasons' Hall". The Grand Lodge concurred, one member stating:
"of all our brethren he is the one most entitled to the distinction ... [owing to] his untiring zeal and energy in our good cause. In the days of the old District Grand Lodge, in his capacity as District Deputy Grand Master, he was looked upon as our principal mainstay, and took upon himself the lion's share of the work and responsibility; indeed no ceremony was considered complete without him."MW Bro. Downer continued to serve the Grand Lodge until his death in 1905, as a Trustee of the Freemasons' Hall Property and also of the Benevolent Fund of Grand Lodge. By 1891 the Hall Property was unencumbered. Subsequent revenues were in part added to capital reserves with the intention of building a larger Masonic Hall in the future (realised in the late 1920's), and in part expended in benevolent and charitable activities.
Retrospect
In 1909, in an Address on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the formation of the Grand Lodge, the Grand Master MW Bro. Sir Samuel Way paid tribute to "the foresight ... enterprise and .. admirable management of Bro. H.E. Downer" and others who had been responsible for the successful establishment of the Masonic Hall Property Fund.
MW Bro. Way made additional special mention of the late MW Bro. Downer as follows:
"At the time of the Masonic Union and for many years before and for many years after, MW Past Grand Master Bro. H.E. Downer was one of the most prominent figures in South Australian Masonry. A member of the same profession as myself, he was a powerful and fearless advocate. For 16 years he filled high judicial office with honour to himself and advantage to the public. Afterwards he sat for 15 years in Parliament and was for some time Attorney General.
But the brightest feature of his career was his connection with Freemasonry. For 15 years before Masonic Union, as District [Deputy] Grand Master he was the actual Ruler of the Lodges under the English Constitution, for by special arrangement the District Grand Master [Arthur Hardy] ruled the Lodges through him.
For the first seven years after the establishment of this Grand Lodge, I had Brother Downer's loyal aid as our first Deputy Grand Master. For many years when railway communication had not been extended, he was wont to make long journeys on horseback to visit the country Lodges, to conduct Installations and other services, when the knowledge of our ritual was less diffused than it now is. He was the leading spirit and Chairman of Trustees and one of those who incurred the responsibility of the acquisition of our Masonic Hall premises; he himself collected over two thousand pounds towards the purchase.
To those of us who were associated with him in his prime, it is pathetic to remember his last visit to Grand Lodge in a brief interval of recovery during his last illness, 'in age and feebleness extreme.'
We prefer to think of him in the prime of his manhood, his countenance all aglow as he brought out, with consummate skill and genuine emotion, the beauty of some Charge in our Ritual; or when with characteristic kindness, he was urging the claim of some distressed brother, or of some widow or fatherless children, to relief."
Thus it can be reiterated - the progress of Freemasonry in South Australia during the last three decades of the 1800's and subsequently was in no small part due to the dedication and zeal of Henry Edward Downer.
Further reading:
- "A History of First Fifty Years of Freemasonry in South Australia 1834-1884" by Glover, CRJ (1915): Adelaide
- "A History of Craft Masonry in South Australia 1884-1934" (1976): Adelaide
- "Proceedings of the Grand Lodge of South Australia" for the years 1884, 1891, 1909
- "Observer" newspaper, 12 August 1905: Adelaide
- obituary in "Advertiser" newspaper, 5 August 1905: Adelaide
- "The Wakefield Companion to South Australian History", ed. Prest, W (2001): Adelaide
- "Biographical Register of the South Australian Parliament 1857-1957" by Coxon, H et al (1985): Adelaide
- "Responsible Government in South Australia" by Combe, GD (1957): Adelaide
- "The Representative Men of South Australia" by Loyau, George E (1883; facsimile 1978): Adelaide
- "How judges and QCs are made" in Law Society of South Australia Bulletin, Vol. 25 No. 5 ( June 2003): Adelaide
