Jackie Howe

{{Short description|Australian sheep shearer (1861–1920)}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2019}}

{{Infobox person

|name = Jack "Jackie" Howe

|image = Howestone.jpg

|caption = Gravesite memorial inscription for Jack Howe in Blackall cemetery

|birth_date = {{birth date|1861|7|26|df=y}}

|birth_place = Killarney, Queensland

|death_date = {{death date and age|1920|7|21|1861|7|26|df=y}}

|death_place =

|other_names =

|known_for = Sheep shearing

|occupation = Shearer

|nationality =

}}

John Robert Howe (10 July 1861 – 21 July 1920) was a legendary Australian sheep shearer at the end of the 19th century. He shot to fame in pre-Federation Australia in 1892 when he broke the daily and weekly shearing records across the colonies.

Howe was considered one of the three wonders of Queensland, along with Eulo publican and personality Isabel Gray ({{circa|1851}}–1929), and the cook and Barcaldine hotelier Jimmy Ah Foo.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article16279335 |title=The back country. A visit to Eulo. The Queen and Her Day |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |issue=27,472 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=22 January 1926 |access-date=4 April 2025 |page=10 |via=National Library of Australia}}{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article224444797 |title=Famous ringers of the studs |newspaper=Weekly Times |issue=3759 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=14 October 1939 |access-date=4 April 2025 |page=9 |via=National Library of Australia}}

== Life ==

File:Jackie Howe newspaper cuttings, 1890s.jpg

Howe was born at Killarney near Warwick, Queensland. Jackie Howe's father, Jack Howe, was also a shearer and a clown with La Rosier's circus, claiming to be the first clown to travel the Australian colonies, and was town-crier in Warwick.{{cite news |date=6 September 1913 |title=Personal |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article82177262 |accessdate=18 January 2017 |newspaper=Warwick Examiner And Times |location=Queensland, Australia |page=5 |via=National Library of Australia |issue=4473}}{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article190757273 |title=Barcoo seat |newspaper=Warwick Daily News |issue=7315 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=8 January 1943 |access-date=4 April 2025 |page=2 |via=National Library of Australia}} His mother, Miss Stokes, was a lady's companion in 1840 at Canning Downs station and one of the first European women in the area, before marrying a second time to Jack Howe senior. He grew up as a shearer around Warwick and the Darling Downs, before a short time at Tambo, trying gold prospecting. It was there that he commenced professional shearing.

Howe was active during the shearer strikes of the 1891{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article82212650 |title=Local and general news |newspaper=Warwick Examiner and Times |volume=25 |issue=1757 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=30 September 1891 |access-date=4 April 2025 |page=2 |via=National Library of Australia}} and 1894, and was a committed trade unionist.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article76757154 |title=The Barcaldine and General Budget |newspaper=The Western Champion and General Advertiser for the Central-Western Districts |volume=XLII |issue=1489 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=31 July 1920 |access-date=4 April 2025 |page=12 |via=National Library of Australia}}{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article253879089 |title=Personal |newspaper=The Toowoomba Chronicle and Darling Downs Gazette |volume=LXV |issue=174 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=22 July 1926 |access-date=4 April 2025 |page=4 |via=National Library of Australia}}

Later on Howe owned a public hotel, The Barcoo Hotel, in Blackall, Queensland.{{When|date=December 2024}} There is now a statue there of him holding a sheep.[http://www.abc.net.au/queensland/heritage/stories/s680642.htm The Day the Llama Spat in Jack Howe's Hair] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060501164359/http://www.abc.net.au/queensland/heritage/stories/s680642.htm |date=2006-05-01 }}, Queensland heritage stories on [http://www.abc.net.au/ abc.net.au] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/19970613204649/http://www.abc.net.au/ |date=1997-06-13 }}. Accessed 29 April 2006. He also at one time was a licensee of the Universal Hotel. However publican life was not for him, and he went onto purchase the property Shamrock Park, and then Summervale.

After an extended illness, Howe died at Blackall in July 1920, leaving behind a widow, six sons, and two daughters. After Howe's death, friend Queensland Premier T. J. Ryan{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article97871712 |title=The Don Bradman of the Shearing Sheds—Jack Howe |newspaper=Sunday Mail (Brisbane) |issue=424 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=5 June 1938 |access-date=4 April 2025 |page=1 (Magazine section) |via=National Library of Australia}} said, in a telegram to Howe's widow, "I have lost a true and trusted friend and Labor has lost a champion".{{Citation needed|date=December 2024}}

One son was John Henry Howe, but also known as Jack Howe. He started as a chemist, but also went into shearing, and wrote a book on his father. He later became a publican. Another son, Leslie John Howe got married in March 1925.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article79327303 |title=Blackall News |newspaper=The Western Champion |volume=XLVI |issue=1729 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=7 March 1925 |access-date=4 April 2025 |page=11 |via=National Library of Australia}} The second son, Darsey John Howe, wed in September 1927.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article79639378 |title=Blackall News |newspaper=The Western Champion |volume=XLVIII |issue=1862 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=24 September 1927 |access-date=4 April 2025 |page=10 |via=National Library of Australia}}

== Shearing record ==

Howe was described as being "one of the best physically built men in Australia". Weighing about {{convert|14|st}}, he measured {{convert|47.5|in}} around the chest and {{convert|26|in}} around the thigh.

On 10 October 1892, Howe had shorn 321 sheep in seven hours and 40 minutes at Alice Downs station, near Blackall, Queensland.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article217038723 |title=Shearing records |newspaper=The Evening Telegraph (Charters Towers) |issue=5751 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=27 May 1920 |access-date=4 April 2025 |page=2 |via=National Library of Australia}} This was a faster tally than any other shearer had achieved before. In the week beforehand, Howe also set the weekly record, shearing 1,437 sheep in 44 hours and 30 minutes. Howe's daily record was beaten by Ted Reick in 1950,{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article137332677 |title=New shearing record |newspaper=The Riverine Grazier |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=29 January 1952 |access-date=4 April 2025 |page=2 |via=National Library of Australia}} but Reick was using machine shears, while Howe's hand shears were little more than scissors.