Kent Remembers: Bernard Howlett
Wednesday 6th November 2024
Born: 18.12.1898, Stoke Newington, London. Died: 29.11.1943, Santa Maria Imbaro, Italy.
Kent 1922-1928.
One of the fastest bowlers to play for Kent between the wars, ‘Swifty’ Howlett probably lacked the accuracy for success at top level, but he had his days, notably while serving in India. He reputedly ‘bowled off the wrong foot’, which probably indicates an action similar to that of Mike Procter.
A career soldier, most of his cricket was for his Regiment and other Army teams, but he also played for Band of Brothers, MCC and the Mote Cricket Club. For the latter, in 1921, he took 32 wickets in only 94 overs. He claimed another 35 wickets for the Mote in 1922 but, more important, made six appearances for Kent.
With the spin of Freeman and Woolley dominating the attack that year, his bowling was little used but against Lancashire at Old Trafford he gained the prize scalps of Harry Makepeace and Charles Hallows, albeit at the cost of 133 runs. At Gravesend, he disposed of the highly-experienced Worcestershire opening pair, Fred Bowley and Dick Pearson for 15 runs. In the following season, although not picked for the first team, he claimed 16 wickets in four matches for the Second XI, including 6 for 46 against Bedfordshire at Bedford School. He also took 3 for 28 and 3 for 43 when Lord Harris’ XI came close to beating the West Indian tourists at Belmont.
Between 1925 and 1927, while serving in India, he made six appearances for the Europeans in the Bombay Quadrangular tournament. In 1925, when his team lost to ‘the Hindus’ in the Final, he took 5 for 62. In the following year he had match figures of 8 for 55 against ‘the Parsees’ and 9 for 79 in the Final when the Europeans again lost to the Hindus. Having scored his only first-class half-century, for Europeans v Indians at Madras in January 1928, he returned to England where he took 33 wickets in what was virtually a complete, and as it turned out final, season for Kent. Again he was expensive but, his season’s tally contained a generous sprinkling of difficult-to-shift, county stalwarts – Ewart Astill, Ted Bowley, Alf Dipper, ‘Doc’ Gibbons, ‘Ticker’ Mitchell, Wilfred Rhodes, Emmott Robinson, Jack Timms and Claud Woolley, as well as distinguished amateurs Harold Gilligan and Errol Holmes.
On returning to India in 1929, he again did well in the Quadrangular with 4 for 11 and 4 for 21 for Europeans v Indians at Madras. Posted back to England in 1930, Howlett played four more first-class matches in 1931, two for the Army, two for MCC. In his penultimate first-class fixture he achieved his career best on English wickets, 5 for 39 for MCC v Oxford University at Lord’s.
Among the most distinguished of Kent’s soldier/cricketers, few saw more of the sharp end of war over a prolonged period than ‘Swifty’ Howlett. The only son of the vicar of St Michael & All Saints, Stoke Newington who died when his son was five years old, he was commissioned into the Queen’s Own Royal West Kent Regiment in April 1918 and served in France and Flanders with the 7th Battalion from August to November. He was promoted Lieutenant in 1919, Captain 1930, Major 1938, Lt Colonel 1940, Brigadier 1942. From December 1930 to December 1934 he served as Adjutant to the 4th (Territorial Army) Battalion, Royal West Kents in Tonbridge and from April 1936 to March 1939 as Staff Captain, 40th (West Riding) Division, Northern Command. In April 1939 he was appointed Brigade Major 132 Brigade, 44th (Home Counties) Division and went to France with them in April 1940. He was with the Division throughout the fighting up to Dunkirk and gained his first mention in despatches.
After his return from Dunkirk he commanded 6tth Battalion Queen’s Own Royal West Kent Regiment. As part of 36 Brigade, 78th Division, First Army, the Battalion was one of the first British Army units to land in Algeria in 1942 during Operation Torch. In December 1942 Howlett was given command of 36 Brigade and, apart from a short spell when he commanded 139 Brigade, 46th Division, he commanded the Brigade through the fighting in Tunisia with First Army and subsequently with Eighth Army in Sicily and Italy, until his death.
He was awarded the DSO in June 1943 for his service in North Africa, and a Bar in November the same year for his service in Sicily. In 1944 he was posthumously mentioned in despatches. He was killed while touring his Brigade’s forward positions during the lead-up to the crossing of the River Sangro.
Always very active in visiting front line units, sometimes on horseback, in an unpublished memoir, Edward Cox, one of his company commanders, recalls ‘on a number of occasions I was embarrassed hearing the soldiers shouting and telling him to remove himself and his red hat before he brought down enemy fire’. His appointment to a divisional command came through on the day of his death. In 1929 he married Helen Beatrice Joan Whitby in Holy Trinity Church, Bangalore. There was one daughter. On his death his effects were valued at £499.8s.9d.
Profile adapted from Derek Carlaw’s ‘Kent County Cricketers: A to Z, 1919-1939′
Read more about some of the Kent cricketers that gave their lives in War via the Club’s Kent Remembers page below:
Kent Remembers
