There is no question as to the business ability of Edgar H Dowson, whose strongly marked qualities have gained him leadership among the young men who figure most prominently in commercial circles of the city. Alert, wide-awake and enterprising, ever ready to grasp and improve an opportunity, he has worked his way upward since coming to the new world a stranger in a strange land and is now the vice president of the White Automobile Company of New Haven. He was born in Manchester, England, in 1887, a son of Ralph and Mary Dowson, who were also of English birth. The mother died during the childhood of her son Edgar and the father passed away in India at middle age. He had been identified for a long period with manufacturing interests and was the pioneer manufacturer in the Grinnell Sprinkler Company of Manchester, England. He came to America on a visit but returned to his native country.
     Edgar H. Dowson was the youngest of three children and in his youthful days attended Shrewsbury College at Shrewsbury, England. When his textbooks were put aside he took up mechanical engineering, which he followed in his native land for five years and then, in 1910, came to the new world. Here he turned his attention to the automobile business, beginning on a small scale as the pioneer agent of the White car in Connecticut, handling and selling the first machine of that make in the state. His automobile agency proved a success from the start and after a time he was obliged to secure larger and more commodious quarters. He then purchased the site of his present plant and erected a modern two-story building at 266 Crown Street, containing showrooms which are unsurpassed in the state. The company today employs forty experts in the handling of White, Buick and Peerless cars. The business was organized under its present form in 1910 as the White Motors Company, Incorporated, with P. R. Greist as president; Edgar H. Dowson, vice president; Hubert Greist, treasurer; and W. A. Rutz, general manager.
     On the 25th of October, 1912, Mr. Dowson was married to Miss Madeline Greist of New Haven. They attend the Episcopal church and Mr. Dowson has membership in the Quinnipiac, Automobile and Edgewood Clubs. He is connected with the Chamber of Commerce and with the Governor's Foot Guard. In a word, his interests reach out along those ramifying lines which indicate keen insight and broad sympathy and which are based upon a recognition of the needs of the individual and of the community.