It is with the deepest sadness that we report on the death of the former Labour peer, and Highways columnist, Lord Howie of Troon, who has died aged 94.
Lord Howie spent roughly half a century in Parliament and will be remembered for his wonderful wit, as well as his passionate campaigning for the engineering profession.
He was a long-time, regular columnist of Highways magazine, producing the monthly Westminster Notes, where he would give an exclusive briefing of all roads-related news from Parliament.
One of his most memorable contributions to the magazine was an impromptu speech he made at the Highways Awards one year. After being let down by a minister, Lord Howie was asked if he could kindly step into the breach.
With no preparation or notes and only a neat whiskey for support, Lord Howie went on to regale the audience with a 30 minute address filled, as his life was, with laughter and his love of the profession.
In his maiden speech as an MP in 1963, Lord Howie said: 'Were it not for engineers, the artists, philosophers and men of affairs would still be scratching their ideas on the walls of caves.'
He was in practice as an engineer from 1944 until his election to the Commons and after working as an MP he went to Thomas Telford Ltd, the publishing wing of the Institution of Civil Engineers, where his long association with Highways magazine was forged.
In the 1980s he took a number of posts with technological and publishing bodies and helped create a register of engineers for disaster relief. He was a governor of Imperial College from 1965 to 1967 and from 1968 to 1991 he was a member of the council of City University, and its pro-chancellor from 1984 to 1991. He was awarded a number of honorary degrees.
On joining the Lords in 1978, using his 20 years’ experience in practice as a civil engineer he contributed to the passage of much technical legislation. He was a committed member from 1991 to 2007 of various science and technology subcommittees and of European subcommittees.
Will Howie was born in the coastal town of Troon in South Ayrshire, the elder son of Annie (nee McGhee) and Peter Howie. He went to Marr College, Troon, and secured a BSc and diploma of engineering at the Royal Technical College, Glasgow
In 1951 he married Mairi Sanderson, who died in 2005. Their two daughters, Annabel and Alisoun, and two sons, Angus and Alexander, survive him.
The funeral will be a private ceremony attended by family this Saturday.
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