PROFESSOR WITH SHOVEL.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 23 December 1933, Page 6

PROFESSOR WITH SHOVEL.

DINED WITH ROYALTY IN RUSSIA. MELBOURNE, Dee. 22. Among the 80 sustenance workers transforming foreground pf the shrine of remembrance into a garden, is John Leopold Howard, '62, who, 15 years ago, was professor of languages at St. Petersburg's leading, university. Once he supped with Russian nobility; to-day he uses pick and shovel. Born in England of wealthy parents, Profess’or Howard, as a boy of 14, went to Russia, where his father was the first British owner of a paper mill.

He was educated in St. Petersburg, now Leningrad, and gained lecturing diplomas in English, French and German.

He spent about 34 years in Russia, and graduated in- languages. He was appointed lecturer at the St. Petersburg University and the Stannen Sehule and the' Corps do- Page. He later accepted service under the Soviet lecturer in languages, but, objecting to the methods of the Bolsheviks, he fled with his wife and family to London in 1920. While in London he was appointed translator for the London law courts. In 1925 he entered the service of Areos, the Russian company, whose premises were later raided by the British police. Howard 'migrated to- Western Australia in 1927 and settled on the land. Inexperience took its toil, and he secured aposition as par.t-time lecturer in the Perth University. For economic reasons the University was forced to dispense with his services. He then moved to Melbourne, but could not-se-cure a position in the Melbourne* University, although it was realised that he was fully qualified to fill the post of lecturer in either French, German or Russian. • So to-day he is a sustenance work-