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Ronald Stanley Howlett was born in Bristol on 9 May 1907 and was commissioned as a probationary Sub-Lieutenant, Royal Naval Reserve, on 23 May 1920. Promoted to Lieutenant, Royal Naval Reserve, on 30 January 1935, he transferred to the Royal Navy on 30 March 1937, with seniority from 9 May 1931, and served initially in the battle-cruiser H.M.S. Repulse before transferring to the destroyer H.M.S. Douglas, the flotilla leader of the 1st Submarine Flotilla, Mediterranean, as Executive Officer on 25 November 1938.
Promoted Lieutenant-Commander on 9 May 1939 he was appointed Commanding Officer of the destroyer H.M.S. Vortigern on 2 January 1940. Howlett commanded Vortigern during her participation with Force ‘H’, including Operation Catapult, the destruction of the French Fleet at Mers-el-Kebir, near Oran, on 3 July 1940, and then subsequently as an escort for H.M.S. Ark Royal and H.M.S. Hood on North Atlantic convoy duties and anti-Submarine patrols.
In November 1940 the Vortigern was posted to the 12th Destroyer Flotilla based at Rosyth, Scotland, and was deployed to escort convoys in the North Sea. On 9 December 1940 whilst escorting one convoy, she came under attack by a German seaplane off Aldeburgh, Suffolk. The destroyer continued her patrols and convoy escort duties all through 1941 and into the spring of 1942.
Howlett was killed in action when the Vortigern was torpedoed and sunk in the North Sea off Cromer by the German motor torpedo boat S-104 on 15 March 1942, whilst escorting 52 ships of the southbound Convoy FS.749 en route from the Firth of Forth to its destination of the Thames. The night was dark with no moon, and the sea calm, ideal conditions for an attack by E-boats. Waiting inshore for the convoy near Cromer on the North Norfolk coast, the German E-boat attack started shortly before 22:00 hours. Vortigern was hit by two torpedoes and sank within minutes, with the loss of 7 officers and 140 ratings, the highest number of casualties suffered by any escort in the North Sea during the Second World War.
There were only 12 survivors. For his gallantry Howlett was awarded a posthumous Distinguished Service Cross (D.S.C).
The award of the D.S.C. was published in the London Gazette on 11 June 1942:
‘For outstanding zeal, patience, and cheerfulness, and for never failing to set an example of wholehearted devotion to duty, without which the high tradition of the Royal Navy could not have been upheld.’
Howlett’s body was recovered from the sea and he is buried in Lowestoft (Normanston Drive) Cemetery, Suffolk.
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