Kenneth Robert Howorth (28 September 1932 – 26 October 1981) was a British army officer and an explosives officer with London's Metropolitan Police Service who was killed whilst attempting to defuse a bomb planted by the

Provisional IRA The Provisional Irish Republican Army (Provisional IRA), officially known as the Irish Republican Army (IRA; ) and informally known as the Provos, was an Irish republican paramilitary force that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland ...

Oxford Street Oxford Street is a major road in the City of Westminster in the West End of London, running between Marble Arch and Tottenham Court Road via Oxford Circus. It marks the notional boundary between the areas of Fitzrovia and Marylebone to t ...

. Howorth served for twenty-three years with the

Royal Army Ordnance Corps The Royal Army Ordnance Corps (RAOC) was a corps of the British Army. At its renaming as a Royal Corps in 1918 it was both a supply and repair corps. In the supply area it had responsibility for weapons, armoured vehicles and other military equi ...

with postings to Austria, Japan,

Tripoli Tripoli or Tripolis (from , meaning "three cities") may refer to: Places Greece *Tripolis (region of Arcadia), a district in ancient Arcadia, Greece * Tripolis (Larisaia), an ancient Greek city in the Pelasgiotis district, Thessaly, near Larissa ...

in Libya,

Stonecutters Island Stonecutters Island or Ngong Shuen Chau is a former island in Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong. Following land reclamation, it is now attached to the Kowloon Peninsula. Fauna The island once boasted at least three mating pairs of sulphur-crested ...

in Hong Kong and various United Kingdom bases. He reached the rank of

Warrant Officer Class 1 Warrant may refer to: * Warrant (law), a form of specific authorization ** Arrest warrant, authorizing the arrest and detention of an individual ** Search warrant, a court order issued that authorizes law enforcement to conduct a search for evide ...

(Conductor) before leaving to join the Metropolitan Police Service as a civilian explosives officer in 1973. On 26 October 1981, police received warnings that bombs on a busy shopping street in

central London Central London is the innermost part of London, in England, spanning the City of London and several boroughs. Over time, a number of definitions have been used to define the scope of Central London for statistics, urban planning and local gove ...

would explode within thirty minutes. A booby-trapped

improvised explosive device An improvised explosive device (IED) is a bomb constructed and deployed in ways other than in conventional warfare, conventional military action. It may be constructed of conventional military explosives, such as an artillery shell, attached t ...

, planted by the IRA, was discovered in the basement toilet of a Wimpy restaurant on Oxford Street. While attempting to defuse the bomb, Howorth was killed instantly when it detonated. Howorth was survived by his wife Ann (who later died on 25 November 2003), his son Steven, and his daughter Susan. In 1983, he was awarded the

George Medal The George Medal (GM), instituted on 24 September 1940 by King George VI,''British Gallantry Medals'' (Abbott and Tamplin), p. 138 is a decoration of the United Kingdom and Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth, awarded for gallantry, typically ...

for gallantry. In 1985, IRA

volunteers Volunteering is an elective and freely chosen act of an individual or group giving their time and labor, often for community service. Many volunteers are specifically trained in the areas they work, such as medicine, education, or emergenc ...

Paul Kavanagh and Thomas Quigley, both from

Belfast Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...

, were convicted of Howorth's murder, along with other attacks, including the Chelsea Barracks nail bombing in September 1981, and each was given five

life sentences Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment under which the convicted individual is to remain incarcerated for the rest of their natural life (or until pardoned or commuted to a fixed term). Crimes that result in life imprisonment are co ...

with a minimum tariff of thirty-five years. However, in March 1999, the Northern Ireland Sentence Review Commission ordered the two men's release under the terms of the

Good Friday Agreement The Good Friday Agreement (GFA) or Belfast Agreement ( or ; or ) is a pair of agreements signed on 10 April (Good Friday) 1998 that ended most of the violence of the Troubles, an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland since the la ...

, a decision immediately challenged at

judicial review Judicial review is a process under which a government's executive, legislative, or administrative actions are subject to review by the judiciary. In a judicial review, a court may invalidate laws, acts, or governmental actions that are in ...

by the

Home Secretary The secretary of state for the Home Department, more commonly known as the home secretary, is a senior minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom and the head of the Home Office. The position is a Great Office of State, maki ...

Jack Straw John Whitaker Straw (born 3 August 1946) is a British politician who served in the Cabinet from 1997 to 2010 under the Labour governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. He held two of the traditional Great Offices of State, as Home Secretar ...

. Mr Justice Girvan rejected the challenge, finding that the wisdom or fairness of the Northern Ireland Sentencing Act 1998, which established the early release scheme, was not a matter for the court and commenting "History will be the ultimate judge". The men were released on 23 March 1999."IRA men freed after Straw’s court move fails"
'' The Herald'' (Glasgow), 24 March 1999

References

*http://www.historybytheyard.co.uk/gallantry.htm 1932 births 1981 deaths 1980s murders in London Assassinated British military personnel People from Littleborough, Greater Manchester Royal Army Ordnance Corps soldiers Metropolitan Police officers People killed by the Provisional Irish Republican Army Recipients of the George Medal Deaths by improvised explosive device in England English terrorism victims Terrorism deaths in England Metropolitan Police officers killed in the line of duty People murdered in Westminster 1981 murders in the United Kingdom Military personnel from the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale 20th-century British Army personnel {{UK-army-bio-stub

See also

References