Tom Forrest Howard DCM (23 December 1888 – 12 June 1953) was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

politician.

Early life

Howard left school at the age of fourteen to become a bookbinder. He established his own stationery business at the age of nineteen. He became involved in

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...

politics before the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, and was a supporter of the

Tariff Reform League The Tariff Reform League (TRL) was a protectionist British pressure group formed in 1903 to protest against what they considered to be unfair foreign imports and to advocate Imperial Preference to protect British industry from foreign competition ...

. During the war he fought on the Western Front, and was awarded the

Distinguished Conduct Medal The Distinguished Conduct Medal was a decoration established in 1854 by Queen Victoria for gallantry in the field by other ranks of the British Army. It is the oldest British award for gallantry and was a second level military decoration, ranki ...

for conspicuous gallantry at the Battle of Cambrai. He ended the war with the rank of sergeant major.

Local elections

In 1922 he fought his first election, winning a seat on Finsbury Borough Council, serving until 1925. In 1925 he was elected to the

London County Council London County Council (LCC) was the principal local government body for the County of London throughout its existence from 1889 to 1965, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today kno ...

as one of two councillors representing Islington South. He was a member of the

Municipal Reform Party The Municipal Reform Party was a local party allied to the parliamentary Conservative Party in the County of London. The party contested elections to both the London County Council and metropolitan borough councils of the county from 1906 to 1945 ...

, the Conservative-backed group that held a majority on the county council. He lost his county council seat at the next election in 1928, but regained it in 1931, before being unseated again in 1934.

Parliamentary elections

Howard first contested an election to the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

1924 Events January * January 12 – Gopinath Saha shoots Ernest Day, whom he has mistaken for Sir Charles Tegart, the police commissioner of Calcutta, and is arrested soon after. * January 20– 30 – Kuomintang in China hol ...

as Conservative candidate for Islington South. He failed to be elected, and contested the seat in

1929 This year marked the end of a period known in American history as the Roaring Twenties after the Wall Street Crash of 1929 ushered in a worldwide Great Depression. In the Americas, an agreement was brokered to end the Cristero War, a Catholic ...

, again without success. On his third attempt he was elected MP for Islington South at the 1931 general election, benefiting from a collapse in the Labour vote. At the next election in

1935 Events January * January 7 – Italian premier Benito Mussolini and French Foreign Minister Pierre Laval conclude Franco-Italian Agreement of 1935, an agreement, in which each power agrees not to oppose the other's colonial claims. * ...

the Labour Party regained the seat. Howard continued to contest elections up to his death: at Islington South in

1945 1945 marked the end of World War II and the fall of Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan. It is also the only year in which nuclear weapons have been used in combat. Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. Januar ...

, at a 1947 by-election at Islington West in 1947, and at Islington South West in

1950 Events January * January 1 – The International Police Association (IPA) – the largest police organization in the world – is formed. * January 5 – 1950 Sverdlovsk plane crash, Sverdlovsk plane crash: ''Aeroflot'' Lisunov Li-2 cr ...

and

1951 Events January * January 4 – Korean War: Third Battle of Seoul – Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul for the second time (having lost the Second Battle of Seoul in September 1950). * January 9 – The Government of the United ...

. He was President of the Islington South West Conservative Association at the time of his death, aged 64, in a London hospital in 1953.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Howard, Tom Forrest 1888 births 1953 deaths Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Members of London County Council Members of Finsbury Metropolitan Borough Council UK MPs 1931–1935 Recipients of the Distinguished Conduct Medal British Army personnel of World War I British Army soldiers