Sir Alfred Bakewell Howitt CVO (11 February 1879 – 8 December 1954[1]) was an English medical doctor who became a Conservative Party politician.
Early life and medical career
Howitt was born in Nottingham, the youngest son of Dr Francis Howitt, a doctor from an old Quaker family whose relatives included the anthropologist Alfred William Howitt. He was schooled at Epsom College and then graduated in natural sciences from Clare College, Cambridge,[2] before training as a doctor at St Thomas' Hospital in London. After several years as a hospital doctor in London, he served during the First World War in France as a captain in the Royal Army Medical Corps, before returning to London in 1919 and practising as a physician in Berkeley Square.[3]
Political career
Howitt first stood for Parliament at the 1929 general election in Preston, where he failed to win either of the two seats.[4] He was unsuccessful again at the Preston by-election in July 1929.[4]
Howitt entered the House of Commons on his third attempt, when he was elected at the 1931 general election as Member of Parliament (MP) for Reading in Berkshire.[5] He was re-elected in 1935 and held the seat until he stood down at the 1945 general election.[5]
In Parliament, Howitt worked with doctors in other political parties, and was chairman of the Parliamentary Medical Committee in 1943.[3]
Honours
He was made a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order in April 1928,[6] and knighted in the 1945 New Years Honours List, for political and public services.[7]