Edward Downes Edward Downes Sir Edward Thomas ("Ted") Downes, CBE (17 June 1924 – 10 July 2009) was an English conductor, specialising in opera. He was associated with the Royal Opera House from 1952, and with Opera Australia from 1970. He was also well known for his long working relationship with the BBC Philharmonic and for working with the Netherlands Radio Orchestra. Within the field of opera, he was particularly known as a conductor of Verdi. He and his wife, Lady (Joan) Downes, committed assisted suicide at the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland on 10 July 2009, an event that received significant media
Kerry Downes Kerry Downes Kerry John Downes (born 1930) is an English architectural historian whose speciality is English Baroque architecture. He is the son of the organist Ralph Downes (190493). He studied at the Courtauld Institute of Art, where he was inspired by the lectures of Margaret Whinney. He has written about (among other things) the English architects Nicholas Hawksmoor (1736), Sir John Vanbrugh (16641726) and Sir Christopher Wren (16321723), and the Flemish painter Sir Peter Paul Rubens (15771640). His fellow historian James Stevens Curl has written, "Downes's productivity seems to contradict his claim that procrastination is one of his recreations". In