Basil Dowling

Basil Cairns Dowling (1910-2000) was a New Zealand poet.

Life
Dowling was born in Southbridge (near Canterbury) South Island, the youngest of 5 brothers. His father, Thomas T. Dowling, died when Basil was 9 years old, and his mother when he was 13.

He attended St. Andrew's College, Christchurch, and then studied history at Canterbury University College, graduating in 1932. He then studied at Knox College, Dunedin, and in 1936 came to Britain to study postgraduate theology at [[Westminster College, Cambridge.

Dowling became a minister in Wellington, and the Chaplain of Scots College from 1938 to 1941. A pacifist, he spoke out against New Zealand's entry into World War II, and was imprisoned for three months for sedition. He renounced his ministry and spent the balance of the war years working in a market garden.

After the war Dowling worked as reference librarian, and later as Deputy Librarian, at Otago University. He moved in 1952 to England, where he taught at Downside Preparatory School until 1954, and then at Raine’s Foundation Grammar School (where he became head of the English Department) until his retirement in 1975.