Gerald Howat

Gerald Howat, born Gerald Malcolm David Howat (12 June 1928 – 10 October 2007), was a British writer on cricket, a historian and a schoolmaster.

Early life

Howat was born in Glasgow, Scotland. As a boy he was awarded a bursary to Glenalmond College. He continued his education at Edinburgh University. He then did his National Service as a Flying Officer based at RAF Titchfield.

Academic career

He spent three years teaching for the oil firm Trinidad Leaseholds Ltd (TLL) at Pointe-à-Pierre. Sonny Ramadhin was the firm's storekeeper.

Returning to England, he was head of the history department at Kelly College in Tavistock for five years, followed by fourteen years at Culham College of Education as principal lecturer and head of the history department. Meanwhile he undertook a research degree on "the place of history in education" for Exeter College, Oxford. He also turned his hand to the world of publishing, for a time being general editor of the Historical Division of Pergamon Press.

He wrote several school textbooks, and was general editor of a "Dictionary of World History" (1973), a massive project which involved working closely with an advisory board that included A.J.P. Taylor, Max Beloff and Asa Briggs. He also spent a year with Mitchell Beazley editing an illustrated biographical dictionary entitled "Who Did What" (1974).

He was Head of History at Radley College, but writing and editing was taking much of his attention, and neither he nor the school was very happy with his time there. He said: "I was not ambitious to be a headmaster and I came to resent the fact that I never had time to put pen to paper (or, more specifically, to write a book) during my years there." In 1977, he moved to a senior pastoral post at Lord Williams's School, Thame, which gave him more time to pursue his other interests. For a short period he was also a visiting professor at Western Kentucky University. He also acted as an Oxbridge Board examiner. He retired from teaching in 1985.

He was an associate editor of the 2004 edition of the "Oxford Dictionary of National Biography". He supplied seventy entries himself, many on former cricketers.

Cricket literature

He covered schools cricket for "The Daily Telegraph" for many years, as well as for "The Cricketer". His retirement from academia gave him more time for his cricket writing, and he produced several well received biographies of famous players. That on Learie Constantine, whom he had first met when at Glenalmond College, won the Cricket Society's golden jubilee award. His last book was his autobiography, "Cricket All My Life".

He was an MCC member for over 40 years. He chaired the club's publishing working party. He seemed well-qualified to serve on the arts and library sub-committee, but he did not get on with the sub-committee's chairman, E.W. Swanton. [cite web|url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/11/02/db0204.xml|title=Gerald Howat|publisher=Daily Telegraph|accessdate=2007-11-04] Howat played club cricket as a wicket-keeper for Moreton CC in Oxfordshire until he was 77. He was associated with the club for almost fifty years.

Family

His son, Michael, played first-class cricket for Cambridge University as a medium-fast bowler, appearing in the University Match in 1977 and 1980. ["Wisden Cricketers' Almanack", 2008 edition, Obituaries section.]

Death

Howat died at Oxford on 10 October 2007 at age 79. His "Independent" obituarist wrote,

"You had to be quick to keep up with Gerald Howat. The short, staccato sentences were delivered at machine-gun pace... It reflected a fecund and restless mind" [cite web|url=http://news.independent.co.uk/people/obituaries/article3090299.ece|title=Gerald Howat|publisher=The Independent|accessdate=2007-11-04]

Bibliography

*"The Story of Health" (with Anne Howat), Pergamon Press, 1967.
*"Who Did What: The Mitchell Beazley Illustrated Biographical Dictionary" (editor), Mitchell Beazley, 1974, ISBN 0855330163.
*"Stuart and Cromwellian Foreign Policy, A C Black, 1974, ISBN 0713614501.
*"Learie Constantine, Allen & Unwin, 1975, ISBN 0049200437.
*"Village Cricket", David Charles, 1980, ISBN 0715377272.
*"Cricketer Militant: the life of Jack Parsons", North Moreton Press, 1980, ISBN 095069570X.
*"Culham College History" (with Leonard Naylor), Culham Educational Foundation, 1982, ISBN 0907957013.
*"Walter Hammond", Allen & Unwin, 1984, ISBN 0047960825.
*"Plum Warner", Unwin Hyman, 1987, ISBN 0044400233.
*"Len Hutton: The Biography", Heinemann, 1988, ISBN 0434981508.
*"Cricket's Second Golden Age: The Hammond-Bradman Years", Hodder & Stoughton, 1989, ISBN 0340423455.
*"Cricket Medley", Sports History Publishing, 1993, ISBN 1898010005.
*"Cricket All My Life" (autobiography), Methuen, 2006, ISBN 9780413776242,

References

External links

* [http://news.scotsman.com/obituaries.cfm?id=1728432007 Obituary, "The Scotsman"]
* [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article2787739.ece Obituary, "The Times"]