George Plummer Howe was born on 11 December 1878 in Lawrence, Massachusetts.  He was the son of Dr. and Mrs. Octavius Thorndike Howe.  He graduated from St. Paul’s School in Concord, New Hampshire and then earned a A.B. degree from Harvard University in 1900.  He entered Harvard’s medical school and graduated with medical doctor’s degree in 1904.  
George worked for two years at the Boston City Hospital.  He then left in 1906 to serve as the surgeon for the Arctic explorer Ernest Leffingwell in Alaska.  Upon returning, he spent another two years practicing medicine at the General Hospital of Lawrence, Massachusetts.  However, George had developed such a keen interest in anthropology and archaeology and this led him to stop practicing medicine for two years while he pursued additional studies at Harvard.  In the summer of 1911, he went on an ethnological expedition to the Yucatan, and he eventually published articles on Eskimo medicine based on that experience.  After returning from the Yucatan, George married Marion Dudly Endicott.  He settled down, and began practicing medicine again in Boston.  
When America entered the war, George volunteered for the Medical Officers Reserve Corps and was commissioned a Lieutenant.  On 20 May 1917, he shipped to England on the Mongolian.  The US Army lent him to the British Army so that he could gain experience in treating the wounded.  He first served at Stationary Hospital Number 8 at Boulogne, then with Field Ambulance Number 48, and then with an engineering battalion of the 13th Royal Fusiliers.  In September 1917, he became the permanent medical officer of the 10th Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers.  On 26 September, the 10th Royal Fusiliers were in combat at Polygon Wood near Ieper in Belgium.  George was at Tower Hamlets when he was wounded by artillery, but he continued to attend to the wounded.  However, at 9.00 am, his position took a direct hit by artillery and George was killed immediately.  An American flag was used for his funeral with full military honors.  He was initially buried at the Godezonne Farm on the Vierstraat cross roads, and his body was moved to the Flanders Field American Cemetery after the war.
Information from the Fifth Report of the Secretary of the Harvard College Class of 1900.