John Harvey Finlayson (3 February 1843 – 30 March 1915) was the editor and part-owner of the South Australian Register.

He joined The Register in 1861 and became head reporter 1866, a proprietor in 1877 and editor in 1878, succeeding John Howard Clark, resigning in 1899 due to ill-health.

He was then appointed resident reporter in Britain until retiring and returning to Adelaide in 1908, dying 7 years later.

[1] In 1878 Finlayson built a residence "Strelda" in North Adelaide which still stands, at 217-221 Stanley Street.

They had a son Harvey Pym Finlayson (a Boer War hero[8] killed 27 February 1915 in Elwood, Victoria when the car he was driving left the road,[9]) and a daughter Katharine, "Kate", who never married.