John William Sowden was born at Leeds in 1889.   He was the son of John Longbottom Sowden (a millwright) and his wife, Alice.   By 1911, the family lived at 8 Bankfield Road, Malin Bridge, with father and son working as fitters in a forge.   By 1922, John William was listed in a directory as a draper.   His cutlery enterprise was launched by 1924 at Tenter Street Works.  In the mid-1920s, Sowden registered the business as a private limited company, relocated to St Thomas Street, and incorporated William Hukin & Sons Ltd (a razor makers) as part of his firm.   Sowden sold stainless steel table knives, some of them marked ‘Firth-Brearley Stainless’.   By 1931, the address was Imperial Works, Bramwell Street, Netherthorpe.  This was a backstreet, with a typical mix of houses and small workshops.  In the Sheffield directory, John William Sowden was listed as both a cutlery manufacturer and fancy draper, who lived at Middlewood Road, Hillsborough.   

In 1934, Sowden found an outlet for his cutlery in Australia, when he became a co-director of Viner & Hall Ltd.  Imperial Works in Bramwell Street became the ‘home’ of Viner & Hall, which also had a factory at Sydney, Australia.  In the Register of England & Wales (1939), John William was living with his wife, Ann, at 66 Halifax Road, Grenoside, and was listed as a ‘Cutlers & Silversmiths Managing Director’.  In 1940, Sowden’s occupied new workshops at Exchange Works in Egerton Street, where it continued to manufacture (or more likely factor) cutlery, spoons, forks, cased goods, and scissors.  By 1961, Imperial Works was in Victoria Street and still linked with Viner-Hall.  But in 1967, both firms were liquidated.   ‘NEPTUNE’ (word) was a Sowden trade mark.  John William Sowden died at Lytham St Annes, Lancashire, on 26 May 1972, leaving £38,727.  His parents had been buried in Wisewood Cemetery, Sheffield, but so far the details of John William’s burial (or cremation) have not been traced.