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Endurance Obituaries |
 Endurance Obituaries |
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WALTER ERNEST HOW
(25/12/1885 – 05/08/1972)
BORN : BERMONDSEY. LONDON. ENGLAND.
DIED : LONDON. ENGLAND.
NICKNAME : WALLY or HOWNOW
DUTY : ABLE SEAMAN
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Awarded Bronze Polar Medal
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Walter was born in Burmondsey. London. England , on Christmas Day 1885. Like Marston , he had a natural artistic ability to draw and sketch.
He was educated in Hemel Hempstead, and went to sea when he was only 12 years of age, and served on many sailing ships, including a coal barge, presumably on the river Thames. He later spent time sailing on ships bound for Labrador. Shackleton probably chose him because of this.
He married Helen Varey in 1913, and his first daughter was only six weeks old when Walter set sail on The Endurance.
It was How, along with Bakewell , who was responsible for smuggling and hiding Perce Blackborow , the stowaway , on board the Endurance.
After the 1914 – 1916 expedition ended, he joined the British Merchant Navy as an able seaman , and was blinded in one eye whilst at sea when his ship hit a German mine. In 1918 his second daughter, Doris was born.
He gained two War Medals whilst in the Navy, and after the war ended returned to London where he took on a number of jobs. (as Doris his daughter puts it “to keep the wolves from the door”).
These varied from making lampshades to painting and decorating. Walter was famed for making ships in bottles, and models of sailing ships, one of which sits in the Cambridge Polar Antarctic Survey College.
Walter also provided a number of illustrations for Margery and James Fishers book “Shackleton” first publish in 1957.
He volunteered to take part in the “Quest” expedition but was forced to withdraw due to the death of his father, which occurred just before the
” Quest” was due to sail from Plymouth.
Around 1929 he commanded a yacht,” The Macheeb” owned by the famous Beecham family which cruised all around the Scottish Islands.
In 1930 he became caretaker to the vessel “Friendship” which was moored at London’s Victoria Embankment near Hungerford Bridge.
He held this post for many years until the outbreak of World War 11, when he went to work for the Tottenham Gas Company, a position he held until he retired, presumably around 1950 when he reached the age of 65.
Over the years he attended many Antarctic get togethers and dinners and kept in touch with a number of his old “Endurance “shipmates. Bakewell and Greenstreet in particular.
On 2nd October 1968 he went to Portsmouth and met up with Greenstreet and Green who formed the last 3 surviving members and had been invited to celebrate the commissioning of the navy’s new Antarctic survey ship H.M.S. Endurance.
He was there again in October 1970 to welcome the ship back from its long visit to Antarctica. The ship had a compliment of 12 officers, 106 men and two helicopters.
Walter rarely spoke of his Antarctic experiences to his children, but he
thought the world of Shackleton and said “He was a man among men”.
Walter sadly passed away after a battle with cancer on 5th August 1972 at the age of 86.
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WALTER TAKEN 21/10/1970 ON BOARD H.M.S. ENDURANCE
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WALTER AND HIS WIFE ELLEN, ENJOY A PICNIC IN THEIR LATER YEARS
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WALTER’S GOLD CHAIN AND MATCH CASE.
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With Thank to Doris Ernestine Warren ( nee How). Second Daughter of Walter Ernest How.
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