Philip Howell

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Howell was

Howell came from a military family. After education at

It was expected, even amongst the highest military circles,

Philip Howell was born in England on 7 December 1877, the second son of Lieutenant Colonel Horace Howell, late the Punjab Frontier Force, and Ella Howell, from Shepshed, Leicestershire. Between the age of six and ten Howell, and his family, joined his father in India and Kashmir, living in places such as Kohat, Murree, and Dera Ismail Khan. He returned to England for schooling in 1887, at Miss Gilzean's school in Clifton, and for two years as a day-boy at Shrewsbury House Preparatory School, Surbiton (his paternal grandfather, John Howell lived in Surrey.) Following this he went to Lancing College from January 1891, joining the fourth form under R.D. Budworth and attended until December 1896. His mother had died prematurely from a long illness in August 1889. Shortly after, his father had retired to Brighton, after a long service in the Indian Army.

Sandhurst and early military career

Howell attended the

During his time as a cavalry subaltern, Howell developed through regimental life a deep love of polo, although a contemporary was later to write that his interest in training and love for his polo ponies exceeded his skill on the playing field. The same officer, Major General Llewelyn Alberic Emilius Price-Davies, VC also described him as a fine horseman who could "tent peg or pickup a handkerchief off the ground on a big horse barebacked at the gallop".^[6] He had a lifelong love of animals, and "adored mischief in animals, as he did children".^[7]

In December 1903 Howell's military professionalism was recognised when Major General

Shortly before this, in 1908, Howell first met his future wife, Rosalind Upcher Buxton, at her family home at Fritton Hall, Lowestoft, Norfolk. She was a member of the notable slave trade abolitionist Buxton family (also known for banking and brewing), and had travelled extensively in Turkey and the Levant. The mutual interest in Near Eastern affairs and culture drew them together, and led to marriage on 11 September 1911.

In December 1911, Howell was appointed by Major General William Robertson as a Senior Instructor at the Staff College, Camberley with the additional title of "Professor of Military Studies".

In the Christmas vacation of 1912, Howell was sent to Thrace, both by The Times (as special correspondent) and the War Office as " military observer" attached to the Bulgarian Army of General Savov during the First Balkan War. His observations, which included an early favourable assessment of the capabilities of the Bulgarian Army, were turned into a series of military lectures for the Staff College, and published as a book, "Campaign in Thrace – 1912".^[9]

On 31 August 1913 Howell was promoted major in the

In March 1915 Howell was appointed Brigadier General, General Staff (BGGS) to the Cavalry Corps under Lieutenant General Edmund Allenby. His promotion to brigadier general was approved and gazetted in September 1915. He was 37 years old.

Both Allenby and Howell were quick to point out that cavalry largely became ineffective in trench warfare impeding much of the point of a Cavalry Corps, although this view was not as pessimistic as some observed at the time. It was simply a reality of trench warfare and way the war was now being conducted. In July 1915 the Cavalry Corps was broken up into its former divisional and brigade structure (redistributed as dismounted battalions to support the infantry in the trenches, although in 1916 it was reinstated). Howell was transferred to the more active role of Chief of Staff of X Corps under the command of Lieutenant General Thomas Morland. Howell approved of Morland, who he perceived to be one of the youngest Corps commanders and therefore more receptive to new more practical ideas. However, Howell's time with X Corps on the Western Front was short lived, as matters developed on a wider geographical scale.

The

The first months of the campaign were, as predicted, entangled with political wrangling, not least of which concerned Greek internal politics, primarily the ongoing rift between the pro-German monarchists and the government led by Prime Minister Venizelos. These required much negotiation and diplomacy, which included dealing with the difficult King Constantine of Greece, apart from military matters. Other issues included the logistics of having an ultimate command structure based at GHQ in Alexandria, Egypt, a distance of 1800 miles – rather than the closer Malta. Eventually the new offensive was launched, and Howell was conveyed to the new front line by a Royal Navy motor torpedo boat to Kavalla. Also as predicted, the new offensive came almost immediately up against strong Bulgaro-German resistance, and stalled. Indeed, the stalemate continued until 1918 tying down the vital resource of six Allied divisions.

As a result of what some considered as a distorted publication (in Christabel Pankhurst's Britannia) of some private notes Howell had sent to a few individual generals and politicians outlining his views on Bulgaria before that country had even entered the war, Howell became embroiled in some controversy as being "pro-Bulgar", which eventually resulted in a call for his recall by a few "pro-Serbian" MPs. Although Howell was not in the least anti-Serbian or a defeatist, he was happy to be released from a campaign he was not convinced would succeed. Legal action for libel against Britannia was considered, but because of his early death never concluded.

Battle of the Somme

Howell returned to the Western Front during the impending build up for the Battle of the Somme, which had largely been forced on the new British commander in chief, Field Marshal Douglas Haig, by French pressure to relieve the attrition being sustained at Verdun. He was appointed chief of staff and second-in-command to II Corps which formed part of General Sir Hubert Gough's Fifth Army. His corps commander was Lieutenant General Sir Claud Jacob, with whom he forged a strong partnership of command. Jacob later wrote "He was the most capable staff officer I have ever come across in all my service."^[8]

Gough's Fifth Army was held back during the opening July offensive at the Somme, which has become the subject of much historical scrutiny. Howell took advantage of this time to conduct an entire survey of the battlefield as it developed, and whilst disappointed that once again "lessons had not been learned",^[7] sought to find positives from which later actions would benefit. As a result of this, Douglas Haig requested that he compile a confidential report.

Earlier in the war, Howell had actively sought to prevent the sending of battalions made up and commanded entirely by "green" conscripts. In one letter he outlines this in an annotated argument in which he points out that an army created from mixing new raw arrivals with experienced non-commissioned officers and soldiers to create a unit that was "fairly good throughout" was preferable to one made entirely of untrained conscripts in which "a small part was very good whilst the remainder were indifferent."^[12] He was, therefore, opposed to "pals" battalions in essence, and after the initial Somme offensive reorganized some of the decimated remnants of some of these into the more experienced units of his command. More particularly he was adamant that divisional, brigade, and battalion commanders be properly briefed prior to any engagement.

During August and into September 1916, Howell was given the opportunity to implement his tactical ideas in some relatively small engagements. These included afternoon offensives, synchronized barrages – including the wider use of creeping barrages – and the limited use of tanks. The purpose of afternoon attacks was that the enemy had less to time to reorganize before darkness fell (the German Army in both World Wars hardly ever engaged during the night) and this gave more time for the British attackers to regroup overnight. II Corps had already achieved better results with afternoon attacks. Importantly, he held detailed briefing for all commanders immediately before any attack, insuring that these understood all elements of the ongoing attack, and their role in it. The success of these small operations, although not perfect, began to unravel some initial objectives leading eventually (and after his death) to the success of the battles of Thiepval Ridge and thereon to Ancre Heights (a shared objective.) More particularly his efforts contributed to the taking of the enemy strongholds of the Schwaben Redoubt, and other "anchors" which the Germans used to keep a hold on the territory.

Howell was never to see the completion of these offensives which included the final capture of Thiepval. He was a frequent visitor to frontline trenches, and to make personal observations so that he could be sure of undistorted facts. It was on one of these visits on 7 October 1916 that he was killed by shrapnel from a stray shell on the track leading from Authuilles. He was alone at the time. The previous day he had visited the front line trenches of his regiment the 4th Hussars at Dernancourt.

Obituaries

Howell received some approbation in the published obituaries and letters published in journals. Some of these defended him from the personal attacks made on him by Christabel Pankhurst's pamphlet Britannia whilst he served in Salonica. Howell said of himself that his own abilities stemmed from "the want of shaping up a muddle."^[11]

General Sir Bryan Mahon wrote: "Howell was a brilliant General Staff Officer, self-reliant, quick to grasp the situation, full of energy and enterprise. He performed exceptionally good service at Salonica under difficult and complicated conditions."^[13]

The

Howell was one of five brothers and one sister. Neither rich nor poor, he came from a family with strong trading and business enterprise in South East London. The family business, Hayter, Howell & Co, was a successful firm of military packers and merchants based in south-east London. One Howell ancestor, Sir Thomas Howell, had as a result of family business connections risen to prominence as Director of Contracts to the War Office (1855–1874) during the Crimean War. Earlier ancestors had been prominent guild merchants in Oswestry in Shropshire, several generations being Mayor of this market town in the Welsh Marches. Howell's military ambitions were not conceived from any compelling financial reasons (as argued by Robbins)^[14] but more directly from the fact of his father's career as a soldier in the Punjab, and a direct interest in military affairs, as well as an enormous sense of adventure - which characteristics he shared with most of the successful soldiers of his generation.

Howell married Rosalind Upcher Buxton of Fritton Hall, Lowestoft, Norfolk. She came from a family of means (Barclays Bank), firmly embedded in the liberal establishment. She was also a close friend of many literary and artists of that generation including

Further reading

• Howell, Rosalind Upcher Philip Howell – A Memoir by His Wife (1942) George Allen & Unwin Ltd, London
• Daniel, David Scott The Story of The 4th Queen's Own Hussars (1959) Aldershot
• Howell, Philip Campaign in Thrace – 1912 (1913) Hugh Rees, London
• Liddle Hart Military Archives Howell, Brig-Gen (1877–1916) Letters & Papers King's College, London
• Evans, Capt. H K D & Laing, Major N O The Fourth (Queen's Own) Hussars in the Great War (1920, reprinted 1999)
• Robbins, Simon British Generalship on the Western Front 1914 – Defeat into Victory (2005) Frank Cass, London
• Robinson, Peter The Letters of Major General Price Davies VC CB CMG DSO – From Captain to Major General 1914–1918 (2013) The History Press, London