John Wallace Downie

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 and was responsible for much of the work of party organisation. At the first general election for the Southern Rhodesian Legislative Assembly on 29 April 1924, he was elected with Francis James Newton 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.^[2]

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 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.^[2]

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 (CMG).^[3] 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.^[2] On 4 November 1930, he was granted retention for life of the title The Honourable.^[4]

Downie served as High Commissioner for Southern Rhodesia in London until 1935, when he retired to become Chairman of Rhodesia and Nyasaland Airways. 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.^[5] He left considerable estate and in his will endowed the John Downie Bursaries for Prince Edward School and the Girls High School, 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).^[6][7]