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 journalis ...

, playwright, captain of the England national rugby union team 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 I ...

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

Biography

Born in Maidenhead,

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. 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 England national rugby union team while he worked with Oswald Mosley for the New Party. Howard represented Oxford University RFC in

The Varsity Match The Varsity Match is an annual rugby union fixture played between the universities of Oxford and Cambridge in England. The event began in 1872 with the first men's match, with interruptions only for the two World Wars. Since 1921, the game has ...

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 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 Olympi ...

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 Nation ...

, Howard joined the Conservative Party and became a political correspondent and investigative reporter for Lord Beaverbrook's '' Daily Express''. 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'', against Britain's appeasement 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, 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 ...

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 opposing ...

and considered it a threat to peace and religious freedom. Howard wrote 17 plays, which were mostly perceived as both extremely didactic and anticommunist 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, in February 1965. Howard married 1932 Wimbledon ladies doubles champion Doris Metaxa, 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'' (f ...

'' 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 ...

on 12 June 1911, but she was raised in Marseilles and represented

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

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