Born at Kensington, she was the fourth daughter and the youngest of five children of the commission merchant Carl Hermann Ernst Matthaei and the musician Louise Henriette Elizabeth Sueur.
Howard was seen as a strict but encouraging and sympathetic teacher, having been appointed lecturer and director of studies in classics at Newnham College in 1909.
[1] Following the outbreak of the First World War, the half-German Howard, a supporter of the Spartacus League, attempted to procure an understanding of Germany and fight against collective paranoia.
She is alleged to have been the historical model for Miss Kilman, the repulsive and over-educated woman in Virginia Woolfe's famous novel Mrs Dalloway.
By getting involved in her husband's campaign against the use of chemicals in agriculture, she continued her sister's support for his work, becoming known as Lady Howard when he received a knighthood in 1934.