Peter Howes
{{short description|Anglican bishop in Malaysia}}
{{Portal|Christianity}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2021}}
Peter Henry Herbert Howes OBE PBS (20 March 1911 – 12 April 2003) was an English clergyman in the Anglican Church who spent 44 years in Borneo. He was an assistant bishop of Kuching from 1976 to 1981.
Early life
Howes was born as Henry Herbert Howes in 1911 in Suffolk to Herbert William Howes (1879-1982), a farmer, and his wife Lilian Emma (née Tungate) (1886-1973). Herbert Howes subsequently became Director of the National Institute of Poultry Husbandry (now part of Harper Adams University) and young Henry (later Peter) grew up in Shropshire, and attended Adams Grammar School in Newport.{{Cite web|url=https://www.ukpressonline.co.uk/ukpressonline/view/pagview/ChTm_2003_05_30_020|title=Church Times: "Obituaries – The Rt Revd Peter Howes", 30 May 2003, p 20|access-date=7 August 2021}}
Career
He went to Kelham Theological College in 1929 to train for ordination with the Society of the Sacred Mission.Crockford's Clerical Directory, 1973-74, 85th Edition, p 468. He was ordained deacon in 1934 and priest in 1935.Crockford's Clerical Directory, 1973-74, 85th Edition, p 468. He served his title at St Michael and All Angels, Norton, Co Durham (1934–37).Crockford's Clerical Directory, 1973-74, 85th Edition, p 468.
Howes went to Sarawak as a SPG missionary in 1937. At first Missioner of St Augustine's Mission, Betong (1937–38), he was then Headmaster of St. Michael's Secondary School, Sandakan (1938–40).{{Cite web|url=https://www.ukpressonline.co.uk/ukpressonline/view/pagview/ChTm_2003_04_25_009|title=Church Times: "Deaths", 25 April 2003, p 9|access-date=7 August 2021}} He was then Priest-in-Charge of Quop (1940–50), but that ten year incumbency masks his experiences of the Second World War. He was interned by the Japanese at the Batu Lintang camp from Christmas Eve 1941 to 1945. Despite the privations of that experience, he was able to translate the New Testament from Greek into Land Dayak, writing on the back of labels from bottles and hiding the texts under the floorboards of his hut.{{Cite web|url=https://www.ukpressonline.co.uk/ukpressonline/view/pagview/ChTm_2003_05_30_020|title=Church Times: "Obituaries – The Rt Revd Peter Howes", 30 May 2003, p 20|access-date=7 August 2021}} In 1963 the British and Foreign Bible Society printed Howes' New Testament in Dayak.{{Cite web|url=https://www.ukpressonline.co.uk/ukpressonline/view/pagview/ChTm_2003_05_30_020|title=Church Times: "Obituaries – The Rt Revd Peter Howes", 30 May 2003, p 20|access-date=7 August 2021}}
He was Priest-in-Charge of Tai-I (1950–52) and then the first Warden of the House of the Epiphany Theological School, Kuching (1952–56).{{Cite web|url=https://www.ukpressonline.co.uk/ukpressonline/view/pagview/ChTm_2003_04_25_009|title=Church Times: "Deaths", 25 April 2003, p 9|access-date=7 August 2021}} His next appointment was a non-clerical one. From 1957 to 1960 he was Officer-in-Charge and responsible for the implementation of the Padawan Improvement Scheme, which brought improvements in education, hygiene and agriculture to villages near the Indonesian border.{{Cite web|url=https://www.ukpressonline.co.uk/ukpressonline/view/pagview/ChTm_2003_05_30_020|title=Church Times: "Obituaries – The Rt Revd Peter Howes", 30 May 2003, p 20|access-date=7 August 2021}}{{Cite web|url=https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/archives/cd762802-55f3-3439-98f8-544ad9f8fcb1|title=JISC Archives Hub: Papers of the Rt Revd Peter HH Howes|access-date=7 August 2021}}
He was a Canon of Borneo Cathedral (1955–62) and then the re-established St Thomas's Cathedral in Kuching (1962–71), as well as Canon Missioner (1961–71).{{Cite web|url=https://www.ukpressonline.co.uk/ukpressonline/view/pagview/ChTm_2003_04_25_009|title=Church Times: "Deaths", 25 April 2003, p 9|access-date=7 August 2021}} At the same time he was Archdeacon of Sarawak (1961–62), Kuching (1962–65), and Brunei and North Sarawak (1965–71).{{Cite web|url=https://www.ukpressonline.co.uk/ukpressonline/view/pagview/ChTm_2003_04_25_009|title=Church Times: "Deaths", 25 April 2003, p 9|access-date=7 August 2021}} He was Principal of the re-founded House of the Epiphany (1971–76) (there was a separate Warden) and then finally Assistant Bishop of Kuching (1976–81).{{Cite web|url=https://www.ukpressonline.co.uk/ukpressonline/view/pagview/ChTm_2003_04_25_009|title=Church Times: "Deaths", 25 April 2003, p 9|access-date=7 August 2021}}
During the colonial period, Howes was a member of the Sarawak State Council.{{Cite web|url=https://www.ukpressonline.co.uk/ukpressonline/view/pagview/ChTm_2003_05_30_020|title=Church Times: "Obituaries – The Rt Revd Peter Howes", 30 May 2003, p 20|access-date=7 August 2021}} He was awarded an OBE in 1961.Crockford's Clerical Directory, 1973-74, 85th Edition, p 468. He appointed a Companion of the Order of the Star of Sarawak (PBS) when the Order was revived in 1964.{{Cite web|url=https://www.crockford.org.uk/people/38625/the-rt-revd-peter-henry-herbert-howes|title=Crockford's Clerical Directory: The Rt Revd Peter Henry Herbert Howes|access-date=7 August 2021}} He retired in 1981, but when the first indigenous Bishop of Kuching, Basil Temenggong, died suddenly in 1984, Howes returned to Kuching to be acting bishop.{{Cite web|url=https://www.ukpressonline.co.uk/ukpressonline/view/pagview/ChTm_2003_05_30_020|title=Church Times: "Obituaries – The Rt Revd Peter Howes", 30 May 2003, p 20|access-date=7 August 2021}}
Personal life
In retirement, Howes lived in York.{{Cite web|url=https://www.ukpressonline.co.uk/ukpressonline/view/pagview/ChTm_2003_05_30_020|title=Church Times: "Obituaries – The Rt Revd Peter Howes", 30 May 2003, p 20|access-date=7 August 2021}} He died in 2003, aged 92.{{Cite web|url=https://www.ukpressonline.co.uk/ukpressonline/view/pagview/ChTm_2003_04_25_009|title=Church Times: "Deaths", 25 April 2003, p 9|access-date=7 August 2021}}
Works
- Shun nyamba nang: A collection of Land Dayak stories, (1952: Macmillan).{{Cite web|url=https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/archives/cd762802-55f3-3439-98f8-544ad9f8fcb1|title=JISC Archives Hub: Papers of the Rt Revd Peter HH Howes|access-date=7 August 2021}}
- "The Lintang Camp: Reminiscences of an Internee during the Japanese Occupation, 1942–1945" Journal of the Malaysian Historical Society (Sarawak Branch) (1976) 2, 33–47.
- In a Fair Ground, or Cibus Cassowari, (1994: Excalibur). {{ISBN|1-85634-367-7}} {{Cite web|url=https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/archives/cd762802-55f3-3439-98f8-544ad9f8fcb1|title=JISC Archives Hub: Papers of the Rt Revd Peter HH Howes|access-date=7 August 2021}}
References
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Category:Anglican missionaries in Malaysia
Category:20th-century Anglican bishops in Asia
Category:People educated at Adams' Grammar School