Goodbye, Peter
Peter Howard-Comment-Obituaries-TimesOnline
During 2000, Peter Howard was my boss at Jane's Navy International, and I couldn't have asked for a better editor and mentor in my early years. He will be missed.
His family's nominated charities are The British Lung Foundation and The Gurkha Welfare Trust, and donations would be appreciated.
Peter's obituary from The Times reprinted below.
Peter Howard
Rigorous journalist and editor who helped to establish the reputation of Jane’s Defence Weekly in its formative years
Peter Howard was from 1987 to 1995 the editor of Jane’s Defence Weekly, the leading defence technology magazine.
He was born in 1937 in Stockport, Cheshire, and attended Woodseats School in Sheffield. His career began at the Sheffield Star, which he joined as a copyboy at the age of 15.
But his progress as a junior reporter was halted by National Service during the Malayan emergency. He was plucked from the Yorkshire newsroom and dropped into the jungles of Malaya, where he served as a public relations specialist. Roaming around swamps with a Rolleiflex camera and notebook was the backdrop to countless adventures, which included surviving a plane crash. Howard quickly reached the rank of acting sergeant in his service with the Army.
Having returned to the Sheffield Star he was based at the Barnsley district office before becoming a sports reporter. He chronicled the highs and lows of Sheffield United for more than a decade, and was eventually appointed the paper’s sports editor.
But in 1975 he left newspapers to become a press officer at the UK Ministry of Defence. The naval desk was Howard’s first assignment, which sent him to sea handling media relations during the 1975-76 third cod war stand-off between Iceland and the UK. Between 1978 and 1981 he spent 15 months as an army press officer in Northern Ireland. He then became editor of the British Army magazine Soldier.
Howard was appointed features editor of Jane’s Defence Weekly in 1985. The magazine had been carving out a niche as the foremost resource for defence news since its inception at the beginning of the previous year. He assumed the editorship two years later, guiding the magazine through its formative years.
The world of defence changed enormously during his tenure, providing opportunities for all manner of scoops. While not always pleasing the establishment or helping to generate advertising revenue these stories lived up to the ideals of rigorous journalism.
After holding other editorial positions at Jane’s Information Group Howard retired to read for a history degree at the University of Chichester.
He is survived by his wife, Janet, and by his son and daughter.
Peter Howard, defence journalist, was born on June 27, 1937. He died of complications following pneumonia on February 17, 2007, aged 69
