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Brigadier General Philip HOWELL CMG
4th (Queen’s Own) Hussars, General Staff 2nd Corps Date of birth: 7th December 1877 Date of death: 7th October 1916 Killed in action aged 38 Buried at Varennes Military Cemetery Plot I Row B Grave 37
Philip Howell was born at 15, The Avenue, Surbiton on the 7th of December 1877 the second son of Lieutenant Colonel Horace Howell, Punjab Frontier Force, Indian Army, and Ella Howell of "The Limes", Horsham in Sussex and of 5 Carlyle Square Chelsea London. He was christened at St Mark's Church, Surbiton on the 7th of January 1878. He was educated at Miss Gilzeane's School, Clifton, at Shrewsbury House Preparatory School, Surbiton for two years as a day boy, and at Lancing College where he was in School House from January 1891 to December 1895. He went on to the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, passing out with honours, and was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant on the Unattached List of the Indian Army on the 4th of August 1897 with a view to serving with the Indian Staff Corps. In the event, he went to India in 1897 and served with the Indian Staff Corps from the 27th of October 1898 before serving with the 5th Punjab Cavalry from 1898 to 1900. He was promoted to Lieutenant on the 4th of August 1899. From 1900 to 1913 he served in the Queen’s Own Corps of Guides (Lumsden's Horse) who served primarily on the North West Frontier. In 1902 the Corps of Guides won the Cavalry Reconnaissance Competition with Philip Howell as their Patrol Commander. He attended the Staff College at Quetta in 1903, and later held several staff appointments in India. He was promoted to Captain on the 4th of August 1906 and studied at the Staff College the same year. He saw action on the Northwest Frontier in 1908, for which he received the medal and clasp, and served as an Intelligence Officer on the General Staff in 1909. From 1909 to 1911 he was a General Staff Officer at the War Office. In 1913 he returned to England and was appointed to the position of Professor at the Staff College in Camberley and also acted as the war correspondent for the London Times during the Balkan Wars. He was promoted to Major on the 13th of May 1913 and was posted to the 4th Hussars at Curragh in Ireland as second in command of the regiment. In the spring of 1912 the British Government introduced the Home Rule Bill which proposed the creation of an autonomous Irish parliament in Dublin. This led to warnings from Unionists in the north, particularly from the Ulster Volunteers, that they would actively resist such a move. Despite warnings from senior officers during 1913 that they feared that many of the British officers under their command would find it difficult to act against the Ulster volunteers if ordered north to confront them. In March 1914 Sir Arthur Paget, commanding officer of the British Army in Ireland, was ordered by the War Office to begin preparations to move troops to Ulster should the need arise. Acting on his own initiative, Sir Arthur offered the officers under his command the choice of resignation rather than move against the volunteers should there be the need to. He accepted 57 resignations out of the 70 officers based at the Curragh rather than have them accused of an act of mutiny which would have been the case had they refused a direct order. In the event the Asquith government backed down and the men were reinstated. Philip Howell , his commanding officer Lieutenant Colonel I.G. Hogg and the regiment Adjutant of the 4th Hussars were among those who resigned. On the outbreak of war the regiment boarded the SS "Atlantian" at Dublin on the 15th of August 1914 arriving at Le Havre at 7am on the following day. Philip Howell assumed command of the regiment on the 1st of September 1914 following the death of Lieutenant Colonel Ian Graham Hogg DSO and remained in command until relieved on the 27th of September when Lieutenant Colonel Bridges DSO arrived to take command. Bridges left the regiment on the 3rd of October and Howell resumed command being promoted to Lieutenant Colonel on the 18th of October 1914. He commanded them through the First Battle of Ypres where they were deployed as infantry. The regiments relatively light number of casualties during the battle was attributed to Howell's "wise leadership" and "being one of the first cavalry officers to realise the extreme importance of the spade". On the 21st of February 1915 his men were spared from being thrown into an attack in which another cavalry regiment had already failed to retake a captured trench. As he was receiving his orders to continue the counterattack the telephone broke down. He remarked:- "A deaf ear at the telephone may be as useful as a blind eye at a telescope." He wrote home in early 1915:- "You can have no idea of what utter destruction means till you have seen the area under fire, a belt of about ten miles width, which borders the opposing lines. Ypres was, when I first entered it last October, the most picturesque and beautiful town that I had ever seen; and it is now just a pile of battered ruins. The water rat sort of operation now in vogue entails constant digging; dig anywhere five yards and you come across a corpse. However, both French and British troops are in excellent fettle; and, whatever happens in this western area, of one thing I am sure, that the Germans cannot win, though I have no notion how long it may take them to realise they are lost." He was awarded the Order of Saint Michael and St George Third Class on the 18th of February 1915 “In recognition of meritorious service during the war”. He left the regiment on the 14th of March 1915, having been promoted to Temporary Brigadier General on the General Staff, Cavalry Corps the day before. He was appointed to the General Staff of X Corps on the 23rd of August 1915 and to the General Staff of XII Corps on the 21st of October 1915. From 1915 to 1916 he served in Salonika as Chief of Staff to General Sir B Mahon. He was mentioned in General C.C. Munro's despatches of the 10th of April 1916 and in Sir A Murray's despatches of the 1st of June 1916. He was mentioned in despatches on four other occasions He was married at the Registry Officer, Hannover Square on the 13th of September 1911 to Rosalind Upcher (nee Buxton) Howell later of 5 Carlyle Square, Chelsea in London. They had a daughter, Deborah, born on the 4th of August 1913 and a son Paul Philip who was born after his father's death on the 13th of February 1917. He was confirmed in the rank of Brigadier General on the 10th of June 1916 and was appointed as second in command of 2nd Corps (18th Division). By October 1916 units of 2nd Corps were seeking to capture the Schwaben Redoubt to the north of Thiepval on the Somme. He was killed by a stray shell while carrying out a reconnaissance near Pozieres; death was almost instantaneous. His wife received the following telegram dated the 9th of October 1916: - "Deeply regret to inform you Brigadiers General Philip Howell was killed in action October 7th. The Army Council express their sympathy." His headstone bears inscription - "Fellowship is heaven and the lack of fellowship is hell." He published "The Campaign in Thrace" (Hugh Rees: London 1913). His wife published “Philip Howell a Memoir by his Wife” by Mrs. Philip Howell (Allen and Unwin 1942). He is commemorated on the war memorial at the Royal Military College Sandhurst and on the memorial at Shrewsbury House School.

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