HOWARTH, Patrick (John Fielding) 1916-2004

(C. D. E. Francis)

OBITUARY NOTICE— See index for CA sketch: Born April 25, 1916, in Calcutta, India; died of cancer November 12, 2004, in Sherborne, Dorset, England. Public relations executive, journalist, and author. Though he spent many years in public relations for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), Howarth is best remembered as the author of histories, biographies, travel books, and poetry. Born in India while his father worked for the New Zealand Insurance Company, he returned to England for his education, earning a master's degree from St. John's College, Oxford, in 1937. Howarth was determined to become a journalist, and he moved to Poland to edit a publication for the Baltic Institute. Fleeing the country just as World War II was beginning, he enlisted in the British Army, where he was in charge of controlling the actions of British secret agents in Europe. After the war, he returned to Poland, working as a press attaché for the British Embassy in Warsaw until 1947. He then returned to England and obtained a job with the British Home Civil Service, working for the Ministry of Town and Country Planning and the Ministry of Housing and Local Government. Howarth grew frustrated with the bureaucracy and left government work in 1953. Several eclectic business ventures followed, including growing bananas in Fiji and organizing expeditions to the North Pole. He then found his niche with the RNLI, for which he served as public relations officer and editor of the magazine Lifeboat until 1979. The security of a steady job allowed Howarth to write a number of books, including fictional works such as The Dying Ukrainian (1953), the satirical A Matter of Minutes (1953), and the detective novel Portrait of a Killer (1957), which was written under the pen name C. D. E. Francis. Howarth also wrote histories such as Questions in the House (1956) and Lifeboats and Lifeboat People (1974), as well as biographies like Squire: Most Generous of Men (1963) and Intelligence Chief Extraordinary: The Life of the Ninth Duke of Portland (1986). The poetry he had been so fond of writing back at university—he almost won the Newdigate Poetry Prize—reemerged as well, and his 1974 verse memoir Playback a Lifetime was broadcast on the BBC. He continued writing poetry almost until the day he died, often hearing his poems aired on BBC Radio programs. Among his last publications were My God, Soldiers! (1989) and Attila, King of the Huns (1994).

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Independent (London, England), November 19, 2004, p. 42.

Times (London, England), December 7, 2004, p. 56.