George Arthur Howson

Major George Arthur Howson MC (7 September 1886 – 28 November 1936) was an officer in the British Army in the First World War, and later the founder and chairman of the Royal British Legion Poppy Factory.

Howson was the youngest child of George Howson, rector of Overton-on-Dee (then in Flintshire). He was the descendant of Anglican clergymen through both parents: his paternal grandfather (John Howson) was Dean of Chester, and his maternal great-grandfather (Thomas Dealtry) was Bishop of Madras. He was christened with a second forename, Arthur, but he disliked it, and never used it.

Howson was educated at Loretto School, Musselburgh, and studied at Heriot-Watt College in Edinburgh. After university, through his father's connections, he was found a position as assistant manager at a rubber estate in Borneo in 1909, where he contracted malaria, dysentery, and jaundice.

Howson was on sick leave in England in 1914 when the First World War broke out. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the 11th (Service) Battalion of the Hampshire Regiment in September 1914. He served on the Western Front throughout the war, from 1914 to 1918. Having been promoted to captain, he was awarded the Military Cross for his actions at Pilckem Ridge in the Battle of Passchendaele on 31 July 1917, where, despite receiving a shrapnel wound, he encouraged his unit to continue repairing a road under shellfire. He was promoted to major, and finally retired from the army in May 1920.

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