The eldest son of Henry Howard, 18th Earl of Suffolk and Mary Eleanor Lauderdale Coventry (1847–1928).

Henry Amelius Coventry (son of George Coventry, 8th Earl of Coventry and Lady Mary Beauclerk, the only daughter of Aubrey Beauclerk, 6th Duke of St Albans)[2] and the former Caroline Stirling Dundas (second daughter of James Dundas, 28th of Dundas Castle and Hon.

[8] On 9 June 1908, he was commissioned as a major, commanding the Wiltshire Battery, 3rd Wessex Brigade, Royal Field Artillery[9] This Territorial unit was sent to India at the beginning of World War I and subsequently provided drafts to units fighting in the Mesopotamian campaign.On 21 April 1917, at the Battle of Istabulat, Suffolk was killed by shrapnel through the heart while commanding a battery.

[citation needed] He is buried at Basra War Cemetery, Iraq.

[10] On 26 December 1904, Suffolk married the American heiress Margaret Hyde "Daisy" Leiter (1880–1968), the second daughter and youngest child of Levi Zeigler Leiter of Dupont Circle, Washington, D.C.[11] Daisy was the sister of Mary Curzon, Baroness Curzon of Kedleston and sister-in-law of Lord Curzon, by whom he had three children:[12] Lord Suffolk was succeeded by his son Charles Howard, 20th Earl of Suffolk.