Peter Dunsmore Howard (20 December 1908 – 25 February 1965) was a British

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

, captain of the

England national rugby union team The England national rugby union team represents England in men's international rugby union. They compete in the annual Six Nations Championship with France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales. England have won the championship on 29 occasion ...

and leader of

Moral Re-Armament Moral Re-Armament (MRA) was an international moral and spiritual movement that, in 1938, developed from American minister Frank Buchman's Oxford Group. Buchman headed MRA for 23 years until his death in 1961. In 2001, the movement was renamed Ini ...

from 1961 to 1965. He also won a World Championship bobsleigh medal in 1939.

Biography

Born in

Maidenhead Maidenhead is a market town in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in the county of Berkshire, England, on the southwestern bank of the River Thames. It had an estimated population of 70,374 and forms part of the border with southern Bu ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, Howard was educated at

Mill Hill School Mill Hill School is a 13–18 mixed independent, day and boarding school in Mill Hill, London, England that was established in 1807. It is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference. History A committee of Nonconformist me ...

. A graduate of the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

and journalist, Howard captained the

while he worked with

Oswald Mosley Sir Oswald Ernald Mosley, 6th Baronet (16 November 1896 – 3 December 1980) was a British politician during the 1920s and 1930s who rose to fame when, having become disillusioned with mainstream politics, he turned to fascism. He was a member ...

for the New Party. Howard represented

Oxford University RFC The Oxford University Rugby Football Club (Oxford University RFC or OURFC) is the rugby union club of the University of Oxford. The club contests The Varsity Match every year against Cambridge University at Twickenham. History Men's team ...

The Varsity Match The Varsity Match is an annual rugby union fixture played between the universities of Oxford University RFC, Oxford and Cambridge University R.U.F.C., Cambridge in England. The event began in 1872 with the first men's match, with interruptions ...

in 1929 and 1930 and made his England debut against Wales in January 1930 while he was still at Oxford. He played eight times for England and in all four matches in the

Five Nations Championship The Six Nations Championship (known as the Guinness Six Nations for sponsorship reasons) is an annual international men's rugby union competition between the teams of England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales. The current champions ar ...

in both 1930 and 1931. He captained England against Ireland at Twickenham in 1931, Ireland winning 6–5.Griffiths, page 1:25 In 1939, he won the

silver medal A silver medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of, or plated with, silver awarded to the second-place finisher, or runner-up, of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc ...

in the four-man event at the

FIBT World Championships The IBSF World Championships (known as the FIBT World Championships until 2015), part of the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation, have taken place on an annual basis since 1930. Starting with 2002, championships of non-Winter Olympic ...

in St. Moritz. After a flirtation with Mosley's

Blackshirts The Voluntary Militia for National Security ( it, Milizia Volontaria per la Sicurezza Nazionale, MVSN), commonly called the Blackshirts ( it, Camicie Nere, CCNN, singular: ) or (singular: ), was originally the paramilitary wing of the Natio ...

, Howard joined the

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

and became a political correspondent and investigative reporter for

Lord Beaverbrook William Maxwell Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook (25 May 1879 – 9 June 1964), generally known as Lord Beaverbrook, was a Canadian-British newspaper publisher and backstage politician who was an influential figure in British media and politics o ...

's ''

Daily Express The ''Daily Express'' is a national daily United Kingdom middle-market newspaper printed in tabloid format. Published in London, it is the flagship of Express Newspapers, owned by publisher Reach plc. It was first published as a broadsheet i ...

''. In 1940, with the Labour Party's future leader

Michael Foot Michael Mackintosh Foot (23 July 19133 March 2010) was a British Labour Party politician who served as Labour Leader from 1980 to 1983. Foot began his career as a journalist on ''Tribune'' and the ''Evening Standard''. He co-wrote the 1940 p ...

and the

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...

's Frank Owen, Howard wrote the political polemic, ''

Guilty Men ''Guilty Men'' is a short book published in Great Britain in July 1940 that attacked British public figures for their failure to re-arm and their appeasement of Nazi Germany in the 1930s. A classic denunciation of the former government policy, it ...

'', against Britain's

appeasement Appeasement in an international context is a diplomatic policy of making political, material, or territorial concessions to an aggressive power in order to avoid conflict. The term is most often applied to the foreign policy of the UK governm ...

and the politicians responsible for it. Meanwhile, Howard had been assigned by Lord Beaverbrook to investigate the 1930s English evangelical movement of the American religious leader

Frank Buchman Franklin Nathaniel Daniel Buchman (June 4, 1878 – August 7, 1961), best known as Frank Buchman, was an American Lutheran who founded the First Century Christian Fellowship in 1921 (known after 1928 as the Oxford Group) that was transformed un ...

, the

Oxford Group The Oxford Group was a Christian organization (first known as ''First Century Christian Fellowship'') founded by the American Lutheran minister Frank Buchman in 1921. Buchman believed that fear and selfishness were the root of all problems. Fur ...

, which was later renamed

. Howard interviewed Buchman and eventually left the ''Daily Express'' and joined the inner circle of Moral Re-Armament. In 1941, he published the book ''Innocent Men'' in which he took a different view of the politicians lambasted in ''Guilty Men'' only a year earlier. He still sharply questioned the relationship between press and government in wartime Britain but also expressed his views about the role that Moral Re-Armament could play. Moral Re-Armament made the fight against

communism Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

a high priority during and after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and considered it a threat to peace and

religious freedom Freedom of religion or religious liberty is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or community, in public or private, to manifest religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship, and observance. It also includes the freedom ...

. Howard wrote 17 plays, which were mostly perceived as both extremely didactic and

anticommunist Anti-communism is political and ideological opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in the Russian Empire, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, when the United States and the ...

on the themes of co-operation and dialogue in industrial relations, politics, and personal life. After Buchman died in 1961, Howard was his chosen successor as leader of the worldwide Moral Re-Armament movement. Howard travelled extensively until he died of viral pneumonia in

Lima, Peru Lima ( ; ), originally founded as Ciudad de Los Reyes (City of The Kings) is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón River, Chillón, Rímac River, Rímac and Lurín Rivers, in the desert zone of t ...

, in February 1965. Howard married 1932 Wimbledon ladies doubles champion

Doris Metaxa Doris Metaxa Howard (née Metaxa; 12 June 1911 – 7 September 2007) was a French tennis player of the 1930s. In 1932, she won Wimbledon title in the women's doubles with Belgian Josane Sigart against Elizabeth Ryan and Helen Jacobs, one year ...

, and they had three children: Anne, Anthony, and ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' journalist Philip Howard (died 5 October 2014, aged 80). Doë (Doris) Metaxa Howard was born in

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

on 12 June 1911, but she was raised in

Marseilles Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...

and represented

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

at Wimbledon; she died on 7 September 2007, aged 96.

Works

* ''Innocent Men'', (1941) * ''Fighters Ever'', (1942) * ''Ideas Have Legs'', (1945) * ''That Man Frank Buchman'', (1946) * ''Men On Trial'', (1946) * ''The World Rebuilt'', (1951) * ''The Real News'', (1953) * ''The Dictators' Slippers'', (1953) * ''The Boss'', (1953) * ''Remaking Men'', (1954) * ''We Are Tomorrow'', (1954) * ''Effective Statesmanship'', (1955) * ''The Vanishing Island'', (1955) * ''Rumpelsnits'', (1956) * ''America Needs An Ideology'', (1957) * ''The Man Who Would Not Die'', (1957) * ''Miracle In The Sun'', (1959) * ''Pickle Hill'', (1959) * ''The Hurricane'', (1960) * ''The Ladder'', (1960) * ''Frank Buchman's Secret'', (1961) * ''Music At Midnight'', (1962) * ''Space Is So Startling'', (1962) * ''Britain And The Beast'', (1963) * ''Through The Garden Wall'', (1963) * ''The Diplomats'', (1963) * ''Design For Dedication'', (1964) * ''Beaverbrook: A Study Of Max The Unknown'', (1964) * ''Mr Brown Comes Down The Hill'', (1964) * ''Give A Dog A Bone'', (1964) * ''Happy Death-Day'', (1965) * ''Above The Smoke And Stir'', (1975) Source:

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Howard, Peter 1908 births 1965 deaths British male bobsledders British male journalists English evangelists England international rugby union players English rugby union players Evangelists Oxford University RFC players People educated at Mill Hill School Rugby union players from Maidenhead