Charles Howard, 20th Earl of Suffolk

He was the son of Henry Howard, 19th Earl of Suffolk, and his American wife, the former Margaret Hyde Leiter (aka "Daisy"), sister of Lady Curzon and daughter of the American businessman Levi Leiter. The 19th Earl was killed in the First World War at the Battle of Istabulat, Iraq.

In 1973, the BBC based a television drama series on the life of the Earl. Ronald Pickup played the leading role in The Dragon's Opponent. The Earl has a role in Michael Ondaatje's novel, The English Patient.

A stained glass window designed by Gerald Smith of St. John's Wood was dedicated by Frederick Cockin, the Bishop of Bristol, at a special service on 15 September 1947, at the church of St. John the Baptist, Charlton, in north-west Wiltshire. (Charlton Park and its estate belonged to the Suffolk family.) The stained glass in the central panel above the four main lights shows the Earl's George Cross. The two main figures are the saints George and John of Nepomuk. St. George is trampling on the defeated dragon, a symbol of evil. St. John Nepomuk, a fourteenth-century priest from Bohemia is the Patron saint of Silence. His inclusion in the window is possibly a reference to the great concentration needed in all scientific activity, particularly in bomb disposal, and also (as with St George), to having suffered martyrdom for his beliefs. At the bottom of the panel is the Suffolk family coat of arms. In the right-hand light is a picture of SS Broompark, the vessel in which the Earl made his remarkable escape from Bordeaux in France. The picture shows the moment a German plane appeared above the ship, but flew off without attacking. St Catherine, above, is the Patron saint of Science and also a martyr. Below is St. Francis of Assisi, Patron saint of Birds and Animals – the Earl loved animals and hated hunting and shooting. At the bottom of the two central lights, two scenes are depicted in fascinating detail. One shows work taking place in a laboratory, the other the dangerous business of bomb disposal. Above the bomb disposal squad is the inscription in memory of the Earl and those who died with him. Finally, above the scene in the laboratory is displayed a poem by John Masefield, Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, written by him upon hearing the news of Jack Howard's death:

The 35th blew up on Erith Marshes in Kent on 12 May 1941, killing all three. The bomb, a 250 kg (550 lb) weapon, was at one of the so-called 'bomb cemeteries', on open ground on the marshes. Bombs were transferred here after being temporarily made safe for transport and then destroyed using controlled explosions.

On 18 July 1941, the London Gazette announced that the King had awarded the Earl of Suffolk a posthumous George Cross "for conspicuous bravery in connection with bomb disposal."

As Liaison Officer for the British Department of Scientific and Industrial Research during the Second World War, the Earl of Suffolk and his colleague Major A. V. Golding (1902–1992 ) were posted to Paris. They, and their private secretaries, Eileen Beryl Morden (Suffolk) and Marguerite Nicolle (Golding), left Paris on 10 June 1940 due to the impending Fall of France.

After leaving the Royal Naval College, Osborne, at 15, he attended Radley College, but quit in 1923 to join the windjammer Mount Stewart as an apprentice officer. After his return from a round-the-world voyage, he was commissioned in the Scots Guards but was later asked to resign from his post by his superiors because of his "wild ways". In 1926, he returned to Australia; where he first worked as a jackaroo and later owned a large farm jointly with Captain McColm, who had been Master of the Mount Stewart.

Charles Henry George Howard, 20th Earl of Suffolk, 13th Earl of Berkshire, GC, FRS, FRSE (2 March 1906 – 12 May 1941) was an English bomb disposal expert who was also an earl in the Peerage of England, belonging to the ancient Howard family. He was styled Viscount Andover until 1917. He is most famous for being responsible for rescuing a team of French nuclear scientists and the entire world stockpile of heavy water from France to Britain in the face of the imminent French defeat in 1940. He was known by the nicknames Mad Jack, Wild Jack or just Jack and although he was generally referred to in aristocratic circles as Suffolk, he was better known in the workaday world as Jack Howard (more officially Charles Howard).

In 1934, he married Chicago-born ballet dancer Minnie Mabel "Mimi" Forde Pigott (21 December 1897 - 22 February 1966); they had three children: