Vol. XVII.] COLOMBO, AUGUST 2Nd, 1897. |No. 2 . 
‘‘PIONEERS OF THE PLANTING ENTERPRISE IN CEYLON.” 
(Second Series.) 
REGINALD BKAUCHAmP DOWNALL, 
PLANTER AND M.L. C.— 1863-1888. 
EAVING England early in 
1863 by a sailing-sliip, R. B. 
Downall arrived in Ueylon 
during May following, after 
the long voyage via the 
Cape of Good Hope. He was 
at once posted by Messr.s. 
George Wall & Co,, as assist- 
anttothe late Watkin William Wynn on Kent and 
Ainbokka estates, Matale West. He was the 
son of Archdeacon Downall of Okehampton and we 
recall the fact of a local Devonshire paper being 
sent us by an illnatured friend, in which the fond 
father had rather foolishly published long ex- 
tracts from his young son’s letters, never meant 
for other eyes than those of tlie domestic circle, 
while he wound up with tlie statement that his son 
hadqualified both in Bookkeeping and in the Tamil 
language on the voyage, so that he was at 
once put into a responsible charge as manager 
of a plantation on his arrival in Ceylon ! We 
took care at the time, that no extract was made 
from the innocent communication into the Obser- 
ver. The Archdeacon — who was greatly attached 
to his Ceylon son — died in 1872 ; and Mrs. Downall 
and daughters then retired to Barley, near Exeter, 
which was Mr. Downall’s home in England till 
his mother’s death. 
Mr. Downall did not long remain an assistant 
on the Matale estate ; for, in our Directory of 
1864-5, we find him transferred to Dolosbage as 
manager of Kalugalla estate, and with that, we 
believe, he combined a certain proportion of duties 
as Visiting Agent or Inspector of Estates — an 
unprecedentedly early aiiiiointment- A little 
later we lind Mr. Downall a full-blown Visiting 
Agent, residing at Peradeniya and representing 
Geo. Wbill & Co.’s firm in Kandy. This continued 
— with the exception of a holiday trip to England 
— up till 1874, when we lind, still as Visiting 
Agent and Justice of the Peace, Mr. Downall 
occupied Barnes’ Hall, Nuwara Eliya, where 
he continued up till 1877 or so. Then came his 
purchase of Mr. G. A. Crliwell’s plantations and 
Mr. Downall went to reside on Dambatenne, 
Haputale. In 1876 Mr. Downall was, for the 
first time, elected Planting Member of Council, 
a post which he vacated on going home in 1879, to 
resume it again on his return the next year ; but 
he once more retired in 1882 to have a brief 
spell at home ; but again resumed in 1885 and 
continued in that honourable and onerous post 
until his final retirement from the island was 
compelled by fatal illness in 1888. 
Such is the briefest possible summary of Mr. 
Downall’s public career in Ceylon. To fill up the 
details and before going into particulars with 
which we are more especially acquainted, we have 
been favoured with two accounts by old and 
dear planting friends who knew him from the 
outset of his life in Ceylon to his sadly prema- 
ture end. First, we have that of a gentle- 
man, who was like a brother, his family and 
that of Mr. Downall being friends at home, and 
