Kenneth Howorth

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kenneth Robert Howorth (b. 28 September 1932, Littleborough, Rochdale, Lancashire, England - d. 26 October 1981, London), a British Explosives Officer who was killed whilst attempting to defuse a bomb planted by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA).

Howorth served 23 years with the Royal Army Ordnance Corps (RAOC) with postings to Austria, Japan, Tripoli, Stonecutters Island in Hong Kong plus various United Kingdom bases. In 1973 he joined the Metropolitan Police as a civilian Explosives Officer. On 26 October 1981, he was killed while attempting to defuse a booby-trapped improvised explosive device (IED) planted by the IRA in a Wimpy burger restaurant, Oxford Street, London.^[1]

Howorth was survived by his wife, Ann (died 25 November 2003), his son, Steven and his daughter, Susan. In 1983, he was posthumously awarded the George Medal.

In 1985, IRA volunteers Paul Kavanagh and Thomas Quigley, both from Belfast, were convicted of his murder (along with other attacks including the Chelsea Barracks nail bomb in September 1981). Kavanagh and Quigley were released in 1999 under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement^{[citation needed]}.