Clifford Hugh Dowker was born in 1912 in Western Ontario, and grew up in a rural community, where his family owned a small farm. His ancestors on his father's side were of Yorkshire origin, while his mother was a McGregor of Scottish descent.

This rural background might appear unexpected for an important mathematician. Indeed, Hugh was the first Dowker to go to High School. Neither of his brothers had academic careers. His elder brother, Gordon, left school at thirteen and worked in the Canadian forests. His younger brother, Arthur, followed the family tradition of working as a farmer.

Hugh Dowker's first school was ar one-room country school to which he had to walk a couple of miles. His next school was the High School in Parkhill, where the mathematics teacher appears to have had little understanding of the subject. Hugh was paid to stay in after school in order to teach mathematics to his teacher!

There was one teacher in Parkhill—not a mathematician—who seems to have had an important influence on Dowker. This was a teacher with a deep knowledge of wildlife, botany and geology, who took him and other pupils to the Muskoka Lakes and the Bruce Peninsula. This experience probably had a lasting effect on Dowker, who, throughout his life, displayed a keen interest in the countryside around him.

When Dowker was seventeen, he went to the University of Western Ontario, having been awarded a scholarship on the basis of his excellent examination results.