Dr J W Dowden Remembered

In October, JSA Forsyth (Scott, 29-34) made a long-promised return to Merchiston to gift and plant yet another tree. Our first Metasequoia Glyptostroboids (Dawn Redwood) is a commemoration of Dr John Dowden (photo left), who was chairman of the governors when Scott’s Merchistonian father JS Forsyth (at School 1895-98) made his special contribution. Scott was at School over the period of the School’s moving out to Colinton, and his father was heavily committed to the building of the new school. Scott was well aware of the high regard his father had for Dr Dowden, and he in turn developed his own great respect.

John Dowden was a pupil at Merchiston from 1878 till 1885, and a governor from 1923 until his death in 1936, having been the chairman of the directors before the reconstitution. His professional achievements and commitments make his generosity to the School all the more remarkable. He graduated from Edinburgh MB.CM, LRCSE, FRCSE, becoming resident physician and surgeon at the Royal Infirmary and the Sick Children’s Hospital. He was an examiner in surgery at the University, also working at the Chalmers Hospital. He was president of the Royal College of Surgeons, and was made an honorary LLD by the University.

Significantly, Dr Dowden was a member of the Great War Memorial Hall Committee, whose failure to achieve planning permission precipitated the move to a new home. Scott Forsyth commented in 1998, speaking at the London Dinner, “It was time we left the old place, which was cramped, unsanitary, and quite unfitted for purpose…”. But Dowden had his work cut out to get approval and support for the bold venture, and the financial approval from the Old Boys fell away below expectations and requirement. Dowden and his team (which included another great Merchistonian John S Pringle) were not to be denied. Here is an extract from EH Connell’s obituary notice in the Merchistonian of 1936.

“…Dowden was not afraid of the big and formidable; it was a big undertaking to contrive to move out from the old Castle to the impressive new edifice in Colinton; the collection of the necessary endowment a formidable task. Dowden undertook his share of it with characteristic, forward moving energy. He wrote numerous personal letters to Old Boys, and showed no resentment when some of them were fruitless. He considered that each Merchistonian would now, or at some tfuture time, deem it a privilege to help endow the School which, for Dowden, symbolised the highest values.”

Ernest Connell was a fellow governor who followed Dowden as chairman, EOC’s father of course!

Dr Dowden left substantial moneys to his School, but it took nearly forty years for legal wranglings to release the relatively small sum which still remained. This paid for the Dowden block, in many opinions, a singularly inadequate memorial.

Scott Forsyth, with three further generations of his family present, and helped by his great-grandsons, planted the young tree appropriately near the gate and East of it. With the energy of a man half his age, he then sampled a school lunch before spending many happy hours around the campus and his trees, including the sequoia giganteam he planted near Castle Gates in 1972 in memory of his father. It is now an imposing 16m hugh (in excess of 50ft). When in 1933 we moved out here, and funds were frighteningly stretched, Scott Forsyth’s mother presented the Coats of Arms on the front gates and the honours boards in the pavilion.

JRB

January 2008