Arnold Fielder Downer

Downer was born in Alexandra, Victoria, Australia, on 4 February 1895, the son of Edwin Harry Downer (died 24 October 1945), a builder, and his wife Mary Ann McMinn (died 13 January 1956).

In 1899, the family emigrated to New Zealand and settled in Feilding, where Downer attended Manchester Street School and the Feilding District High School, before completing his higher education at Wanganui Technical College.

After leaving high school he obtained a cadetship in 1913 with the Public Works Department and was employed in their Dunedin office on a number of projects in Otago and Southland.

Arnold Downer had long been a director of William Cable Holdings, a long established company which by the mid-1950s was looking for opportunities to expand its construction activities. As it seemed advantageous to both parties Downer and Company merged with, and became a major subsidiary of, William Cable Holdings in 1954.

Arnold Downer married concert singer Phyllis Lorimer Massey in Sydney on 14 September 1927. The couple had no children, but brought up a young nephew of Phyllis's following the death of his mother.