Colonel Howes was educated at Eastbourne College, and commissioned into the Royal Artillery from Sandhurst in 1956. He qualified as an Instructor-in-Gunnery in 1962 and is a graduate of The Staff College, Camberley, and the National Defence College, Latimer.

In over thirty years in the Army Colonel Howes saw active service in Cyprus, Jordan, Malaya, Northern Ireland and some Gulf States. He also served at regimental duty in England and Germany, where he was Adjutant of 24 Missile Regiment. He held senior staff appointments at Headquarters, British Army on the Rhine and in the Ministry of Defence, both on the Central Operations Staff and in the Army Department.

From 1978 to 1981 he was responsible for managing the budget for the Army’s new equipment programme and was appointed OBE for this service. During the Falklands War he was on the central planning staff and a member of the War Cabinet briefing team. At the end of that war he was promoted to head the Army Department branch responsible for planning the logistic support of all Army operations worldwide, and in this capacity devised and brought into service the seaborne logistic system which supported the Falklands garrison until the permanent build was complete.

He left the Army to market the ‘Instant Harbour’ system worldwide making successful project proposals to the US Department of Defence and the Government of Indonesia.