George Augustus was born circa 1724. He was the son of Emanuel Scrope Howe, of Langar, Nottingham, governor of Barbados from 1732 to 1735, and Maria Sophia Charlotte, a daughter of Baron von Kielmansegge and his wife, who was half-sister of George I and created by him Countess of Darlington.
George Augustus succeeded to the title, in the Irish peerage, in 1735, and in 1747-58 followed in his father's footsteps by representing Nottingham borough in Parliament. In March 1745 he entered as ensign the 16t Foot Guards (the Grenadier Guards), became lieutenant and captain in May 1746, served as aide-de-camp to the Duke of Cumberland in 1746 and 1747, fought at Laufeldt, and got his company with the army rank of lieutenant-colonel in May 1749. His rapid promotion was due to his high connections, to his own natural aptitude for the military profession, and to a personality unusually winning; there were those, before the Seven Years' War, who called him the best soldier in the British army.
Appointed colonel of the 3rd Battalion of the Royal Americans (60th) early in 1757, Howe joined his men at Fort Edward three days after Montcalm had invested Fort William Henry. In September he became colonel of the 55th, stationed in upper New York. Both Abercromby and Loudoun placed reliance on his ability. He commanded the reinforcement sent to the belated relief of German Flats in November, and led an abortive winter expedition against Ticonderoga in February 1758. Refusing to mix in army politics, he set himself to learn the peculiarities and demands of war in the American wilderness, and studied open-mindedly the methods of the ranger Robert Rogers.
Promoted to a brigadier-generalship in December 1757, he was named by Pitt as second in command in Abercromby's expedition against Ticonderoga the following summer. From April to July 1758 he practically changed the appearance of the British army in the field by cropping their hair and cutting down their hats and coats, and he sacrificed his personal luxuries in such a manner as to win the love and admiration of provincials and regulars alike, and to earn for himself Wolfe's dictum that he was "formed by nature for the war in this country. " Early on the morning of July 6, after the army had been transported to the foot of Lake George and had been formed into columns for the march to Ticonderoga, Howe, at the head of his own column, ran into a French skirmishing party and fell at their first volley. In him, says Mante, the soul of the army seemed to expire. His body was carried to Albany, and buried there in St. Peter's Church. He was succeeded in the title by his brother, Richard, Earl Howe, and later by his brother William, both of Revolutionary fame.
Quotes from others about the person
He was described by James Wolfe as "the best officer in the British Army".
