Howie was born in Riccarton, Ayrshire, on 8 April 1856 to Robert and Bethia (Wyllie) Howie, into a wealthy industrial family who had been active in the Covenanting movement. He was born at the family home, Newhouse, an estate house nearby the fireclay mine which the family owned.
The house is now a residential care home. Howie"s father, Robert, died at the Crichton Institution in Dumfries, a private lunatic hospital, when Thomas was 27. He later became owner of the business.
Previous to settling in Falkirk the Howie family lived in Hurlford, where they owned the renowned Hurlford Fireclay Works (until it was bought by Armitage Shanks), which produced pottery, bricks, chimneys, garden ornaments and enamelled sanitary ware (lavatories, baths, urinals etc) The family owned much of the town, including Marchmont Place, Salisbury Place, Collier Row, Office Row, Chapel Cottages, Skerrington Row and Howie"s Square.
They also owned small mining villages, including Hemphill. A supporter of the Unionist Party, Thomas Howie was a Justice of the Peace and elected a Stirling County Councillor for Falkirk, Vice-Chairman of the Parish Council, as well as Chairman of the Landward Committee.
Thomas Howie was the cousin of industrialist John Howie (businessman)
Thomas Howie was a distant cousin of writer John Howie
Thomas Howie was the great-grandfather of actor Robbie Coltrane
Thomas Howie was the first cousin twice removed of the current Lord Glenarthur
At a Water Board outing he was taken ill and never recovered, dying in 1927. The local newspaper at the time remembered him as a "bright and cheery man", and notes that he "took a deep interest in parochial affairs and was particularly sympathetic towards the deserving poor".
Thomas Howie is buried in Falkirk Cemetery.
On his death, his share of the brickworks business was valued at £12,000, which is equivalent to over £2,300,000 in today"s terms (relative Gross Domestic Product per capita). A street, Howie Place, in Falkirk, is named after him. lieutenant is nearby the site of the brickworks he once owned.
