William John Sowden

Sir William John Sowden (26 April 1858 – 10 October 1943) was a journalist in South Australia, who was knighted in 1918.

He was born in Castlemaine, Victoria, the son of Thomas Sowden (ca.1832 – 3 May 1888), a miner from Cornwall, and his wife Mary Ann, née Hocking. They spent some years in Kapunda, but had returned to Castlemaine by 1867, where William completed his schooling and started in the newspaper trade. They moved to Moonta in 1874, where William started work with the Yorke's Peninsula Advertiser, then in 1879 he joined the Port Adelaide News (both owned by E. H. Derrington, whose feuds with Ebenezer Ward were legendary) and in 1881 started working for the South Australian Register, and was selected to accompany a group of parliamentarians (J. Langdon Parsons, H. E. Bright, L. L. Furner, J. H. Bagster), Professor Ralph Tate and others, to the Northern Territory on the Menmuir (Captain Ellis) as a representative of the Register. On his return he was given a position on the reporting staff and became chief leader writer in 1892. From 1897 to 1899 he was acting editor, and subsequently became editor, remaining in that position until his retirement in September, 1922. He became part-proprietor of the Register in 1899.

He wrote, as "A. Pencil", a regular satirical column as city correspondent for the Kapunda Herald, much as C. R. Wilton, as "Autolycus", wrote for the Mount Barker Courier. He also wrote, as "A. Scribbler", a regular column "Echoes from the Smoking Room" for the Register.

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