Peter Howson

Peter Howson was born on May 22, 1919. His father, Major George Howson MC, an engineer, not only survived the Great War but after returning to civilian life founded the British Legion Poppy Factory, which provided employment for many injured ex-servicemen.

Peter went to school at Stowe and then to Trinity College, Cambridge. When war broke out in 1939, he tried to join up but, as a science student, was required to continue his studies for at least another year. He joined the Fleet Air Arm in 1940, and was posted to Malta, where he flew the famous Fairey Swordfish, a single-engined biplane which carried one torpedo. The idea was to line up an enemy ship crossing the Mediterranean, preferably with the rising moon behind it, and fly in slowly, at less than 100 mph, at a very low altitude, aim the torpedo at the target ship, drop it and then try and escape enemy fire.

Because the Swordfish had a maximum speed of 138 mph, the odds weren’t too good. Of twenty-eight Swordfish pilots based in Malta, only nine survived the war. Following Peter’s death only one is left. Peter himself was shot down and wounded and spent some hours in the Mediterranean before being picked up.

Peter’s maternal grandfather, William Gibson, was before the Great War one of the giants of Australian business. Under his leadership Foy and Gibson had become Australia’s leading retailer. William Gibson had five sons and four daughters, but only one surviving male grandchild, Peter, and after the war it was deemed proper by his family that he should be sent out to Australia to look after their interests in Foy and Gibson. So Peter arrived here and set about learning the retailing business from bottom to top.

In Peter’s family tree a long list of Anglican clergymen are to be found; at least one bishop but, more significantly, one who was a member of the Clapham sect and a leader in the anti-slavery movement.

Peter himself was a strong churchman. He held office in a number of church vestries, and he knew his Bible and Book of Common Prayer thoroughly. His Christian faith illuminated everything he did but it was never on show. Only his close friends would seek to engage him in theological or doctrinal disputes and always found him very well informed.

He married Kitty Synott in 1956 and they had one son, George. Kitty was a great source of strength and sound judgment throughout Peter’s political career and subsequently. She died in June last year.

Peter won Liberal Party endorsement for the seat of Fawkner in 1950 but lost to Bill Bourke in the 1951 and 1954 elections. After the Split he won it in 1955 and held it comfortably until it was abolished in 1969, when he moved to Casey, losing that seat in the 1972 election.                                                               

His ministerial career was effectively cut short by the death of Harold Holt. He was a leader of the group who backed Paul Hasluck to succeed Holt, and recalled begging Hasluck to pick up the telephone to seek support from his colleagues. But Hasluck refused to do so; John Gorton won the ballot and, soon after, the seat of Higgins, which Peter had hoped to take over when Fawkner was abolished.

When William McMahon succeeded Gorton, Peter was appointed Minister for Aboriginal Affairs but found himself sidelined because of the inordinate influence which Nugget Coombs had over McMahon.

After Gough Whitlam took office, Coombs became the dominant voice in Aboriginal policy, and his ideology of separatism and self-determination became the doctrine of both Labor and Liberal parties. Peter found himself at odds with this new doctrine, but out of parliament and out of sympathy with the new Liberal policies of Mal-colm Fraser, Fred Chaney, Ian Viner and those that came after them, he spent his time and energy as President of the Eye and Ear Hospital. He was in large part responsible for getting the bionic ear program established.

After the 1993 election, which the Liberals had assumed was in the bag, it became clear that Liberal policy regarding Aborigines was confused and full of contradictions. David Kemp organised a dinner in Melbourne with some Liberal politicians and with Peter Howson, who was asked to do what he could to bring some cohesion and clarity into Liberal Party thinking about these issues.

The Mabo judgment had come down in June 1992, and the Prime Minister, Paul Keating, had promised legislation to bring the Mabo judgment into statutory effect. Peter resolved to become involved, again, in Aboriginal affairs, and from then on he was busy organising conferences, building up networks of people with knowledge and experience of what was really going on in Aboriginal Australia, and in due course publishing articles in Quadrant and in the broadsheet press which had a wide influence on informed opinion.

His most recent article appeared in the January-February 2009 issue of Quadrant, and it is a fitting finale to an outstanding career of service to Australia.

The Hon. Peter Howson CMG died unexpectedly on February 1.