Albert Howard | Timeline | A Distant Mirror

1873: Born on December 8 in Shropshire, England.
1896: Graduates from the Royal College of Science, London (now part of Imperial College).
1897: Attends St. John’s College, Cambridge, where he achieves First Class Honors in the Natural Sciences Tripos.
1899–1902: Appointed Mycologist and Agricultural Lecturer for the Imperial Department of Agriculture in the West Indies. Here, he studies sugarcane diseases and begins to observe that disease resistance is linked to soil conditions.
1903–1905: Returns to England to work as the Botanist at Wye College in Kent. He focuses on hop breeding and begins questioning the efficacy of artificial fertilizers (specifically NPK) compared to farmyard manure.

1905: Appointed as the first Imperial Economic Botanist to the Government of India. He moves to the Pusa Agricultural Research Institute in Bihar.
1905: Marries Gabrielle Matthaei (1876–1930), a fellow plant physiologist and researcher. She becomes his inseparable scientific partner; nearly all his work in India is a joint collaboration.
1905–1924: Works at Pusa, focusing on wheat breeding, tobacco, and indigo. During this period, he develops his theory that soil aeration and drainage are critical for preventing disease. He observes that crops grown with organic manure are virtually immune to pests.
1924: Moves to Indore to found the Institute of Plant Industry, where he is given free rein to experiment with holistic farming systems.
1924–1931: Develops the “Indore Method” of composting. By systematically mixing animal manure, vegetable waste, and soil bacteria, he creates a replicable process for manufacturing high-quality humus.
1930: Gabrielle Howard dies unexpectedly. This is a profound personal and professional loss, but Howard continues their shared work.
1931: Publishes The Waste Products of Agriculture: Their Utilization as Humus (co-authored with Gabrielle Howard). This text details the technical specifications of the Indore Method.

1931: Retires from his official post in India and returns to England.
1931: Marries Louise Matthaei (1880–1969), Gabrielle’s younger sister. Like her sister, Louise is an intellectual and becomes a tireless editor and champion of his work.
1934: Knighted (created a Knight Bachelor) by King George V for his contributions to science and agriculture. He becomes Sir Albert Howard.
1935: Initiates the News-Letter on Compost, a publication designed to spread his ideas directly to farmers and gardeners, bypassing the academic establishment that often opposed him.
1940: Publishes his magnum opus, An Agricultural Testament. The book synthesizes his life’s work, critiques the chemical farming industry, and lays the philosophical groundwork for the organic movement.
1943: His work inspires Lady Eve Balfour to publish The Living Soil, leading to the formation of The Soil Association.
1945: Publishes Farming and Gardening for Health or Disease (later retitled The Soil and Health). This book is more accessible to the general public and explicitly connects soil fertility to human preventative medicine.
1947: Dies on October 20 in London at the age of 73.
Posthumous: His wife, Lady Louise Howard, continues his advocacy, founding the Albert Howard Foundation and publishing Sir Albert Howard in India (1953) to preserve his legacy.