The Australian Women's Register

Summary

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.

Details

Events

• 1912 - 1915

  President of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union

• 1932 - 1941

  Secretary, Baptist Women’s Association, Victoria

• 1934 - 1943

  President, Collins Street Baptist Women’s Guild

• 1935 - 1938

  President of the Australian Baptist Women’s Board

• 1928

  Australian Delegate to the Baptist World Alliance Conference in Toronto

• 1928

  Australian Delegate to the World’s Woman’s Christian Temperance Union in Lausanne

• 1941 - 1942

  President, Travellers’ Aid Society of Victoria

• 1970

  Married John Downing, they had seven children

• 1909

  Recording secretary of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, Victoria

• 1911

  Founding superintendent of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union’s immigration department

• 1907

  One of the government’s first child-probation officers

• 1906

  Joined the Collins Street Baptist Church

• 1917

  Vice-president of the Housewives’ Co-operative Association (later Housewives’ Association of Victoria)

• 1928 - 1936

  Honorary Secretary, National Council of Women of Victoria

• 2040 - 1945

  President, Federated Association of Australian Housewives

• 1920 - 1932

  Executive Member, Travellers’ Aid Society of Victoria

• 1945

  President, Travellers’ Aid Society of Victoria

• 1944

  President, National Travellers’ Aid Society

• 1938 - 1952

  President, Housewives Association of Victoria

• 1947

  President, National Travellers’ Aid Society

• 1949 - 1951

  President of the Federated Association of Australian Housewives

• 1932 - 1940

  Junior Vice President, Travellers’ Aid Society of Victoria