John Howard Clark

John Howard Clark (15 January 1830 – 20 May 1878) was editor of The South Australian Register from 1870 to 1877 and was responsible for its Echoes from the Bush column and closely associated with its Geoffry Crabthorn persona.

Her eldest brother, Matthew Davenport Hill, was Recorder of Birmingham, penal reformer and a supporter of Edward Gibbon Wakefield.

[4] Clark worked for a time at an iron smelter in Dudley, but after a bout of serious illness, emigrated with his parents to Adelaide, South Australia, arriving on the Fatima in June 1850.

[6] Clark was an adept writer and contributed to the Register (one of those who used the nom de plume "Pleeceman X"), and the Telegraph,[7] an evening paper whose editor, Frederick Sinnett, was a close friend.

... the paper has become a greater power in the state ... not merely for its independence of thought, but for its fearlessness in tho expression of its opinions, and its aim to be at all times fair and just.

[8] The one aspect of his incumbency for which he is best remembered is the weekly "Echoes from the Bush" column, conducted under the pseudonym "Geoffry Crabthorn" with its frequently powerful advocacy and pungent satire.

The "Echoes" have been read and appreciated in the other colonies – in fact, at this moment I have a letter from one of the ablest writers in Sydney, who says, what we here are prepared to endorse, that "Geoffry Crabthorn" at his best has no peer in Australia.

"[8] Clark acted as landlord for his uncle Rowland Hill, who owned two parcels of land later the site of by the Parkside Mental Hospital.

[5] Clark was an active member of the Unitarian Christian Church in Wakefield Street, and prominent in the appointment in 1855 of its first full-time minister, the Rev.

[5] The John Howard Clark Scholarship for English Literature at the University of Adelaide was endowed in his memory, and open to boys or girls who had completed the first year of a BA degree.