The highly emotive Great War 1917 ‘Pilckem Ridge’ M.C. group of four awarded to Major G. A. Howson, 11th (Service) Battalion, Hampshire Regiment (Pioneers), who during the course of the war was wounded by shrapnel, captured and escaped - but perhaps of greater import, founded the Disabled Society which took over the production of Poppies for the British Legion in 1922. Major Howson instituted the Field of Remembrance at Westminster Abbey in 1928

Military Cross, G.V.R.; 1914-15 Star (Lieut. G. A. Howson. Hamps. R.); British War and Victory Medals, M.I.D. Oak Leaves (Capt. G. A. Howson.) mounted as originally worn, very fine (4) £1,400-£1,800

M.C. London Gazette 18 October 1917.

M.I.D. London Gazette 22 May 1917.

George Arthur Howson was born in September 1886, and was the youngest child of George Howson, then Rector of Overton-on-Dee, Flintshire (later Archdeacon and Canon Emeritus of Liverpool Cathedral). Howson was educated at Loretto and Heriot Watt, after which he was employed on a rubber estate in British North Borneo. Howson was commissioned into the Hampshire Regiment, and served with the 11th (Service) Battalion (Pioneers) on the Western Front.

Howson advanced to Temporary Captain in September 1916, and was awarded the M.C. for his gallantry at Pilckem Ridge during the Battle of Passchendaele, 31 July 1917, where, despite receiving a shrapnel wound, he encouraged his pioneers to continue repairing a road under shellfire. Having recuperated, Howson returned to the command of B Company and was present with them during the German Spring Offensive of March 1918:

‘The retirement was well covered by the 11th Hampshire at St. Emilie itself [22 March 1918], where a stubborn defence kept the Germans back for some time. D Company under Major Thyne bore the brunt of the attack in the first place, holding on tenaciously till their right was completely turned. B and A then covered D’s withdrawal, where upon B became the centre of the Germans’ attentions, to be in turn forced back. Lt. Elkington had been killed just before this, while Captain Howson was captured but managed to escape.

In retiring upon Villers-Faucon the battalion suffered rather heavily but carried out the move in good order, standing first along the railway running South Epehy, and then on high ground near Villers-Faucon.’ (Regimental History of the Royal Hampshire Regiment by C. T. Atkinson refers)

Howson advanced to Acting Major in December 1918, and was briefly attached as Second in Command of the 5th Battalion, Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry. He married Jessie Gibson, the daughter of William Gibson (the Australian owner of the Foy & Gibson department stores) in September 1918. The couple were to inherit her father’s fortune when he died in November of the same year. Howson undertook a philanthropic approach and became the founding chairman of the Disabled Society in 1920, with Jack Cohen MP. After the first Poppy Appeal in 1921 used artificial poppies imported from France by Madame Anna Guérin, the British Legion commissioned the Disabled Society to make poppies in England for the 1922 appeal.

Howson started with a workforce of five disabled ex-servicemen at a former collar factory on the Old Kent Road in June 1922. The number of employees rapidly increased to over 40, and they made a million poppies within two months. The Prince of Wales (later Edward VIII) visited the Poppy Factory in November 1924. The factory made 27 million poppies that year. Most of the employees were disabled, and by then there was a long waiting list for prospective employees.

The Disabled Society merged with the British Legion in 1925, and the Poppy Factory became a company limited by guarantee, with Howson as chairman. The factory moved to Richmond, Surrey in 1926, to the premises of an old brewery bought using money donated by Howson.

Major Howson instituted the Field of Remembrance at Westminster Abbey in 1928, and the factory started to make remembrance crosses and wreaths. In later life he resided in Hambleden, near Henley-on-Thames, with a town house in Kensington. He died of cancer of the pancreas in 1936, and was buried at Hambleden, with the funeral service conducted by his father.