David Armine Howarth

Shetlopedia - The Shetland Encyclopaedia

Menorial plaque for Howarth at Lunna Kirk

David Armine Howarth (28 July 1912 - 2 July 1991) - British historian and author, BBC war correspondent, naval officer and boatbuilder. Joint Special Operations Executive (SOE) and The Shetland Bus in 1941.

The 28th of December 1944, he married Shetland girl Nanette Smith in the Sandness kirk.
They settled in Scalloway after the war, and he ran a small shipyard next to the Prince Olav slipway.

Howarth's shipyard, (1946/47), with LK 447 ENTERPRISE being built. In foreground on Price Olav's Slipway is the Burra ferryboat Madge.
Photo from Shetland Museum and Archives.

After the war he wrote several historical books and books about the war in general and of specific events in the war including the Shetland Bus. Among his best known works with a Shetland connection there are:

• The Shetland Bus: A WWII Epic of Escape, Survival, and Adventure (1954,)
• We Die Alone: A WWII Epic of Escape and Endurance (1957,) later made into a movie called Ni Liv (aka. Nine Lives)
• The Story of P and O: The Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (1995,) finished by his son Stephen Howarth.

After his death, the ashes were scattered on the waters of Lunna Bay.