(Evelyn Michael) Thomas Howell
by Walter Bird
bromide print, 25 March 1966
NPG x168446
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Philippa Howell
23 April 2018, 14:11
I think he returned from Egypt early in 1938, not late in 1938. He married our mother Helen in Cairo in December 1937, and they returned to England together. Jennifer his eldest daughter was born in Louth, Lincolnshire in September 1938.
Helen M Gage
23 April 2018, 13:51
His fellow prisoners in Changi also included the author, James Clavell, whose novel King Rat vividly describes my father's time in Changi. The character Peter Marlowe is largely based on my father.
Michael William Davis Howell (EMTH's elder son)
21 April 2018, 12:19
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/air-vice-marshal-tom-howell-armaments-specialist-d3hw952zvx3
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1996617/AVM-Tom-Howell.html
The above links will give you his obituaries in the Times and Daily Telegraph. The tenth anniversary of his death is on the 5th May in two weeks' time.
To note the incorrect Telegraph date, he was born on 11 September 1913. Other corrections come from his wartime diary which suggest he did not stay as long out of enemy hands as the obituary writers suggest. He gave himself up rather quickly after his Australian colleagues were killed or captured. His diary does not mention Bangka island but rather months spent in a Java prison camp in Bandung, Java. His fellow prisoners included Laurens van der Post.
I know this because the diary was transcribed by my elder sister, Mary, who was given the diary by our mother Helen before she died.
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Terry Holland
03 January 2022, 15:37
In 1962 ,When I rejoined the RAF I was posted to RAF Henlow and then was sent to work on the staff of the (then Air Commodore E M T Howell at Hitchin, Herts. as chef . They were the nicest family you could have wished to work for. I was there until Autumn 1964 when I was requested to produce the wedding cake for his daughter Mary. The wedding took place at The RAF church of St. Clement Danes in London and I was privileged to be invited to both the wedding and the reception in the City afterwards . This I now realise was 60 years ago and brings back happy memories. Terry Holland