Alfred married Elizabeth Doble Pengelly. Their daughter, Vera Elizabeth Heywood Howard was
born on 9th May 1906 in Glamorgan. Vera Elizbeth was married in June 1932 to Charles Martin
Wickert.
The 1st April, 1914 edition of The Gazette advised of officers of the lst Battalion Pembrokeshire
Volunteer Battalion, the Welsh Regiment appointed to the battalion with rank and precedence as in
the Volunteer Forces, amongst them Lieutenant Alfred Heywood Howard to Captain.
By September 1914, one month after the outbreak of the war, Captain Howard and every man in the
4th Welsh Battalion stationed at Haverfordwest had volunteered for the fighting line. On the 2nd
December 1914, the Western Telegraph gave a long account of speeches made by the Major and
Captain Howard as the 4th Battalion made ready to leave Haverfordwest. The Council presented
each soldier with a leather case containing a hair brush and comb.
The Telegraph of the 1st September 1915 includes details received in letters from the local men of
Captain Howard’s death.. the “first in our battalion to get knocked over .....shot the day we landed”.
He was killed in action on 10th August 1915. It seems that his body is interred on Chocolate Hill,
the scene of much desperate fighting. The Telegraph wrote “Thus closes the career of a gallant
officer, one who idolised his men and who has been repeatedly referred to by the Harfat boys of his
company as “Poor Captain Howard”, “Dear Captain Howard” and similar expressions of
affectionate regard and esteem”. Captain Howard’s widow and little daughter have now removed
to Cardiff, where, we understand, they will reside permantently.