Howard was the eldest son but second child of Edward Stafford Howard and Lady Rachel Anne Georgina Campbell, and was educated at Harrow School and King's College London. Howard married Violet Ethel Meysey-Thompson, daughter of Sir Henry Meysey Meysey-Thompson, first and last Baron Knaresborough, on 11 October 1921. She was the widow of Captain Alexander Moore Vandeleur, 2nd Life Guards, who was killed in action at Zandvoorde during the First Battle of Ypres on 30 October 1914. The couple had two daughters.