{{Short description|Canadian politician (1883–1952)}} {{Use Canadian English|date=January 2023}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = William Robinson Howson | image = William R. Howson c.1932.jpg | image_size = | caption = Howson in 1932 | birth_date = {{birth date text|March 6, 1883}} | birth_place = Norwood, Ontario | death_date = {{death date and age|1952|6|25|1883|3|6}} | term_start = June 19, 1930 | term_end = 1936 | predecessor = David Duggan, Charles Gibbs, John Lymburn, Warren Prevey and Charles Weaver | successor = Walter Morrish | office1 = Leader of the Alberta Liberal Party | term_start1 = 1932 | term_end1 = March 2, 1936 | predecessor1 = George Webster | successor1 = Edward Gray | office = Member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta | constituency = Edmonton | party = Liberal | alma_mater = | spouse = | children = | occupation = politician, judge, debt collector, soldier banker and real estate agent | branch = Royal Canadian Army | allegiance = Canada | battles = World War I | service_years = 1916–1918 | rank = | unit = | commands = | awards = }} '''William Robinson Howson''' (March 6, 1883 – June 25, 1952) was a politician, judge, debt collector, soldier, banker, and real estate agent from Alberta, Canada. He served as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta from 1930 to 1936 sitting with the Liberal caucus in opposition. He led the caucus and the party from 1932 to 1936.
==Early life== William Robinson Howson was born in Norwood, Ontario on March 6, 1883, to William R. Howson and Anna Johnston. Howson would be educated in Norwood and attend undergraduate school near Peterborough.<ref name="AJL">{{cite book |last1=Mardon |first1=Austin |title=Alberta's Judicial Leadership: A Biographical Account |date=2011 |publisher=Lulu.com |isbn=978-1897472323 |pages=45–46 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g61RAwAAQBAJ}}</ref> He worked as a high school teacher in Mathers Corners and in 1906 became a bank manager for the Sovereign Bank of Stirling, and in 1908, the Bank of Montreal.<ref name=arch>[http://www.uofaweb.ualberta.ca/publicaffairs/pdf/UofAFinalReport.pdf Historical and Architectural Assessment of the Houses in East Campus Village, University of Alberta] by David Murray, Ken Tingley and Don Luxton, September 2003, page 64, accessed April 1, 2008</ref>
He moved to Alberta in 1910 and settled eventually settled in Edmonton after stints as a bill collector in Sedgewick, Alberta and as a real estate agent in Calgary. He attended the University of Alberta, receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1915 and a Bachelor of Laws degree in 1916, where he was awarded the gold medal in Law upon graduation. Howson would article with Alexander Grant MacKay and was admitted to the Law Society of Alberta on January 11, 1916.<ref name="AJL"/><ref name="LASA">{{cite journal |title=Architypes |journal=Legal Archives Society of Alberta |date=Fall 2016 |volume=25 |issue=2 |pages=3–6 |url=http://legalarchives.ca/architypes/Architypes25_2.pdf |access-date=15 May 2020}}</ref>
He served with the Royal Canadian Army in France during World War I from 1916 until the end of the war in 1918 as a Sergeant with the Tank Corps. He returned to the practice of law in Edmonton with Parlee, Freeman, and Howson, and eventually becoming King's Counselor in 1935.<ref name="AJL"/><ref name="LASA"/>
==Political career== Howson ran for a seat to the Alberta legislature in the 1930 Alberta provincial election. He stood as a Liberal candidate in the Edmonton electoral district. He won the fourth place seat out of seven to earn his first term in the Legislature.<ref name="1930 official">{{cite web | url=http://www.abheritage.ca/abpolitics/administration/maps_choice.php?Year=1930&Constit=Edmonton | title=Edmonton Official Results 1930 Alberta general election | publisher=Alberta Heritage Community Foundation | access-date=April 29, 2010 | archive-date=December 8, 2010 | archive-url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/2217/20101208175106/http://www.abheritage.ca/abpolitics/administration/maps_choice.php?Year=1930&Constit=Edmonton | url-status=dead }}</ref>
Howson became leader of the Alberta Liberal Party in 1932 and led it in the 1935 provincial election.<ref name=Howson/> The Liberal party despite having success prior to the election enticing two members to cross the floor ended up losing seven seats but keeping official opposition status. Howson held his seat finishing in the top three seats after obtaining the vote threshold on the first count.<ref name="1935 official">{{cite web | url=http://www.abheritage.ca/abpolitics/administration/maps_choice.php?Year=1935&Constit=Edmonton | title=Edmonton Official Results 1935 Alberta general election | publisher=Alberta Heritage Community Foundation | access-date=April 29, 2010 | archive-date=December 8, 2010 | archive-url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/2217/20101208180134/http://www.abheritage.ca/abpolitics/administration/maps_choice.php?Year=1935&Constit=Edmonton | url-status=dead }}</ref>
Howson resigned his seat and as party leader a year later on March 2, 1936, after being appointed to replace John Boyle on the supreme court.<ref name="appointment">{{cite news|title=Liberal Leader Now Mr. Justice Howson|publisher=The Lethbridge Herald|date=March 3, 1936|work=Vol XXIX No 252|pages=1–2}}</ref><ref name="LASA"/>
==Judicial career== Howson was appointed by the federal Liberal government Justice Minister Ernest Lapointe to sit on the Alberta Supreme Court Trial Division in 1936,<ref name="AJL"/> the Appellate Division in 1942, and became chief justice of the trial division in 1944<ref name=Howson>[https://books.google.com/books?id=JWWo___pkQUC&dq=william+robinson+howson&pg=PA151 Naming Edmonton: From Ada to Zoie] by City of Edmonton, Merrily K. Aubrey, Edmonton (Alta.), Published 2004 University of Alberta, page 151, "Howson Crescent"</ref> serving until approximately a month before his death on June 25, 1952.<ref>Tom Barrett [http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/story.html?id=7868acdd-5616-41ea-a7b7-752283a4c3b8&p=3 "Independence crucial to a democratic society"], ''Edmonton Journal'', August 27, 2007, accessed April 1, 2008</ref><ref name="LASA"/>
Howson presided over German prisoner of war trials in Medicine Hat including the infamous case where POW Karl Lehman a suspected sympathizer with Operation Valkyrie was beaten and hanged by four fellow POWs on September 10, 1944. Bruno Perzonowsky, Walter Wolf, Heinrich Busch and Willi Mueller were hanged in Lethbridge, Alberta along with convicted murder Donald Sherman Staley on July 24, 1946, in what would be the largest mass hanging since the North-West Rebellion.<ref name="LASA"/><ref>{{cite news |last1=Pruden |first1=Jana G. |title=Alberta's largest mass Hanging |url=http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/hanged/mass1.html |access-date=15 May 2020 |work=Edmonton Journal |date=2011}}</ref>
On June 5, 1937, while presiding over the sentencing of convicted arsonist Stanley Blozak Howson would witness Blozak commit suicide by swallowing strychnine in the court room and later die in hospital. Prior to his suicide Blozak would profess his innocence and allege he did not receive a fair trial as Blozak was a Socred and Howson was Liberal, and by committing suicide Blozak would avoid the three-year sentence handed down by Howson.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Zdeb |first1=Chris |title=June 5, 1937: Convicted arsonist swallows poison in court during sentencing |url=https://edmontonjournal.com/news/local-news/june-5-1937-convicted-arsonist-swallows-poison-in-court-during-sentencing/ |access-date=15 May 2020 |work=Edmonton Journal |date=June 5, 2015}}</ref>
From 1950 to 1951 Howson would hear the case of ''Oil City Petroleums v. American Leduc Petroleums'', which would become the last appeal to go from Canada to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Morrow |first1=W.G. |title=The Last Case |journal=Alberta Law Review |date=1978 |volume=16 |issue=1 |url=https://www.albertalawreview.com/index.php/ALR/article/viewFile/11/11 |access-date=15 May 2020}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *[http://www.assembly.ab.ca/legislaturecentennial/pdf/membersBooklet.pdf Legislative Assembly of Alberta Members Listing] *{{AlbertaMLAbio|ID=0205}} *[https://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/military-heritage/first-world-war/personnel-records/Pages/item.aspx?IdNumber=475984 William Robinson Howson Personnel Record for the First World War]
{{ABLOpp}} {{Alberta Liberal Party}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Howson, William}} Category:1883 births Category:1952 deaths Category:Leaders of the Alberta Liberal Party Category:Alberta Liberal Party MLAs Category:Judges in Alberta Category:University of Alberta alumni Category:20th-century members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta