1894: W.A. Dowler

W.A. Dowler, Tillsonburg

Born in Manotick, near Ottawa, Ontario; William Arthur Dowler was the son of Rev. J.A. Dowler, a prominent minister in the Methodist Church. He attend Perth High School and graduated B.A. from Victoria University at eighteen years of age. After reading law with Frost & Frost, Owen Sound, and Lazier and Doyle, Hamilton, he was called to Bar in 1884 and began to practice in Tillsonburg, where he was a law partner with Victor A. Sinclair, K.C. 

In 1890, he was elected Deputy Reeve, and from 1891-1894 was Reeve of the Town of Tillsonburg. In 1894, he was elected Warden for the County of Oxford. Active in the Liberal Party, he put forth his name at the Liberal Convention in 1904, where he was runner up to M.S. Schell. 

In 1908, W.A. Dowler moved to Fort William, Ontario where he served on the County Court Bench at Kenora. He passed away suddenly on June 12, 1938, at the age of seventy-six. During his time in Tillsonburg, he was a chairman of the Workmen’s Compensation Board and was an official in St. Paul’s Church.