His elder brother Hubert George Lyulph Howard (1871–1898) was killed at the Battle of Omdurman while working as a war correspondent for The Times.

[3] His youngest brother, Lt. Michael Francis Stafford Howard (1880–1917), was missing and was finally presumed killed in action in the First World War.

[5] On the break-up of his father's estates (which had been left to his mother and subsequently to his sister Lady Mary, wife of Gilbert Murray), he was allocated Castle Howard.

As part of the Liberal landslide victory he gained the seat for the party, ousting the sitting Conservative Claude Lowther with a swing of 6%.

The Liberal Party lost ground at the January 1910 general election, but Howard held his seat, and was appointed private secretary to the Prime Minister H. H. Asquith.

In 1911 a vacancy occurred in the Westbury division of Wiltshire when the sitting Liberal MP resigned to take up a diplomatic appointment.

Howard was chosen as the Liberal candidate for the resulting by-election and retained the seat with a slightly reduced majority.

The Liberals were experiencing something of a revival nationally, which helped him win the seat from the sitting Unionist Sir John Prescott Hewett.

Apart from his political career Howard was also a Justice of Peace and a temporary lieutenant in the Royal Naval Division in 1914.