Howard Fowles was an Australian politician. He was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly

New South Wales Legislative Assembly

The Legislative Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of New South Wales, an Australian state. The other chamber is the Legislative Council. Both the Assembly and Council sit at Parliament House in the state capital, Sydney...

  from 1941 until 1968 and a member of the Australian Labor Party

Australian Labor Party

The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...

 (ALP) . He was the acting Speaker of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly

Speaker of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly

The Speaker of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly is the presiding officer of the Legislative Assembly, New South Wales's lower chamber of Parliament. The current Speaker is Shelley Hancock, who was elected on 3 May 2011...

 for 3 months in 1962.

Fowles was born in Merrylands, New South Wales

Merrylands, New South Wales

Merrylands is a suburb in western Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Merrylands is located 25 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district and is the administrative centre of the local government area of the City of Holroyd...

. He was the son of a blacksmith, was educated to elementary level at state schools. From the age of 14 he worked as a linesman for the New South Wales Government Railways

New South Wales Government Railways

The New South Wales Government Railways was the government department that operated the New South Wales Government's railways until the establishment of the Public Transport Commission in 1972. Although later known officially as the Department of Railways, New South Wales, it was still generally...

 and was an official in the Electrical Trades Union until 1941. In later life, he was also a poultry farmer. Fowles was elected to the New South Wales Parliament as the Labor member for the seat of Illawarra

Electoral district of Illawarra

Illawarra was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of New South Wales. It was originally created in 1859, replacing East Camden. It was replaced by Wollongong in 1904 and recreated in 1927. In 1968, it was abolished and partly replaced by Kembla. In 1971,...

 at the 1941

New South Wales state election, 1941

The 1941 New South Wales state election was held on 10 May 1941. This election was for all of the 90 seats in the 33nd New South Wales Legislative Assembly and was conducted in single member constituencies with compulsory preferential voting....

 state election. . The sitting Labor member Billy Davies successfully contested the new seat of Wollongong-Kembla

Electoral district of Wollongong-Kembla

Wollongong-Kembla was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of New South Wales. It was created in 1941, and abolished in 1968, being split into Wollongong and Kembla.-Members for Wollongong-Kembla:...

 at that election. He retained the seat for the next 8 elections and retired at the 1968

New South Wales state election, 1968

The 1968 New South Wales state election was held on 24 February 1968. It was conducted in single member constituencies with compulsory preferential voting and was held on boundaries created at a 1966 redistribution...

state election.