Tiny Rowland
{{Short description|British businessman (1917–1998)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2021}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Tiny Rowland
| image = TinyRowland.jpg
| birth_name = Roland Walter Fuhrhop
| birth_date = {{birth date|1917|11|27|df=yes}}
| birth_place = Calcutta, Bengal, British India
| death_date = {{death date and age|1998|07|25|1917|11|27|df=yes}}
| death_place = London, England
| education = Churcher's College
| known_for = Corporate raiding
| occupation = Businessman
| spouse = {{marriage|Josie Taylor|1968}}
| children = 4
| relatives = Plum Sykes (daughter-in-law)
}}
Roland Walter "Tiny" Rowland ({{ne|Fuhrhop}}; 27 November 1917 – 25 July 1998) was a British businessman, corporate raider and the chief executive of the Lonrho conglomerate from 1962 to 1993. He gained fame from a number of high-profile takeover bids, in particular his attempt to take control of Harrods. He was known for his complex business interests in Africa and his closeness to a number of African leaders.
Early life
He was born Roland Walter Fuhrhop on 27 November 1917 during World War I in a British internment camp for aliens outside Calcutta, India. His mother was Anglo-Dutch and his father, Wilhelm Fuhrhop, was a German export-import trader in Calcutta.{{Cn|date=November 2022}} Having been born in British India, he was automatically a British subject, by the principle of jus soli. However, his parents remained "enemy aliens" for the duration of the First World War, and after the war, the Fuhrhops were refused entry into the United Kingdom. They settled in Hamburg, Germany.{{Cn|date=November 2022}}
He was said to have been nicknamed "Tiny" by his nanny because he was a large child. In the 1930s, he was briefly involved with the Hitler Youth, but his father was firmly opposed to Hitler and moved his family to Britain in 1937 to escape Nazi Germany.{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/139614.stm |title=Tiny in name, not in nature |date= 26 July 1998 |work=BBC Online}}
He was sent to England, where he attended Churcher's College in Hampshire and acquired an upper-class British accent and mannerisms. His family settled in England in 1937.{{Cite web|url=http://www.nickdavies.net/1990/08/01/tiny-rowland-portrait-of-the-bastard-as-a-rebel/|title=Nick Davies — Tiny Rowland – portrait of the bastard as a rebel|website=www.nickdavies.net|language=en-US|access-date=14 June 2018}}{{cite book |title=Hutchinson Encyclopedia of Britain – Biographies |publisher=Helicon Publishing |date=March 2005}}
He then worked for his uncle's shipping business in the City of London. He took his uncle's surname, Rowland, shortly after the outbreak of the Second World War.{{London Gazette |issue=34718 |date=27 October 1939 |page=7230 |supp=y}} He was conscripted into the British Army, where he served with the Royal Army Medical Corps. As enemy aliens, his parents were interned on the Isle of Man, where his mother died. He himself was interned as an enemy alien after trying to arrange for the release of his father.
Lonrho
In 1948, Rowland moved to Southern Rhodesia, where he subsequently managed a tobacco farm at Eiffel Flats, Mashonaland West province. From 1952 to 1963, he lived with Irene Smith, the wife of a business partner.{{cite book |title=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography}}
Rowland was recruited to the London and Rhodesian Mining and Land Company, later Lonrho, as chief executive in 1962. Under his leadership, the firm expanded beyond mining and became a conglomerate, dealing in newspapers, hotels, distribution, textiles and many other lines of business.
During 1973, Rowland's position was the subject of a High Court case in which eight Lonrho directors sought Rowland's dismissal, due to both his temperament and to claims he had concealed financial information from the board.{{cite news |title=Lonrho chief deceived board and concealed information, court told |author=Andrew Goodrick-Clarke |date= 9 May 1973 |work=The Times}} Rowland failed in his legal attempt to block the move{{cite news |title=Lonrho chief fails in court, but shareholders will decide his future |author=Andrew Goodrick-Clarke |date= 15 May 1973 |work=The Times}} but was subsequently backed by shareholders and retained his position.{{cite news |title=Huge Lonrho vote gives Mr Rowland sweeping victory and eight opponents are dismissed |author=Andrew Wilson |date= 1 June 1973 |work=The Times}} British Prime Minister Edward Heath, referring to the case, criticised the company in the House of Commons and described events there as "the unpleasant and unacceptable face of capitalism".{{cite news |title=Mr Heath calls Lonrho affair 'the unpleasant and unacceptable face of capitalism' |date= 15 May 1973 |work=The Times}}
In 1983, Rowland took over The Observer newspaper and became its chairman. He also campaigned to gain control of Harrods department store in Knightsbridge, but he was defeated by Mohamed Al-Fayed.{{cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/police-were-right-to-suspect-fayed-of-theft-rules-judge-173270.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100520074331/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/police-were-right-to-suspect-fayed-of-theft-rules-judge-173270.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=20 May 2010 |title=Police were right to suspect Fayed of theft, rules judge |author=Kim Sengupta |date=14 August 2002 |work=The Independent}} Rowland described his relationship with the Fayed family in his book A Hero from Zero.{{cite book| title = A Hero from Zero| year = 1998 | author = R. W. Rowland | publisher = Greenaway Harrison, London}} He started with the following words:
In Spring 1985, the three Fayed brothers acquired House of Fraser. They did so despite detailed allegations by Lonrho as to their unsavoury character and the fabrications as to their origins and wealth which they had invented to present themselves in a falsely favourable light.
The rest of the book set out to justify these statements.
A December 1993 Financial Times article revealed that Hemar Enterprises, makers of documentary film The Maltese Double Cross – Lockerbie, was owned by Metropole Hotels, controlled by Rowland. The film stated that Libya had no responsibility for the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103. Shortly after the indictment of Libya in the Pan Am Flight 103 incident, Rowland sold a percentage of his interests to the Libyan Arab Foreign Investment Company (Lafico), controlled by the government of Libya. For this reason, Susan and Daniel Cohen, parents of Pan Am Flight 103 victim Theodora Cohen, claimed that Libya had backed the film.Cohen, Susan and Daniel. "Chapter 16." Pan Am 103: The Bombing, the Betrayals, and a Bereaved Family's Search for Justice. New American Library. 2000. pp. 230–229
In a boardroom coup engineered by German tycoon Dieter Bock in October 1993, Rowland was forced to step down as chairman of Lonrho. He was succeeded by former diplomat Sir John Leahy. In March 1995, he was dismissed by the board.{{cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/he-just-could-not-go-quietly-1609793.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220621/https://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/he-just-could-not-go-quietly-1609793.html |archive-date=21 June 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=He just could not go quietly |author=William Kay |date=3 March 1995 |work=The Independent}} The Cohens' conjecture regarding Rowland's association with Muammar al-Gaddafi, the leader of Libya, and the film The Maltese Double Cross – Lockerbie contributed to the decision to dismiss Rowland.Cohen, Susan and Daniel. "Chapter 16." Pan Am 103: The Bombing, the Betrayals, and a Bereaved Family's Search for Justice. New American Library. 2000. p. 235
In 1996, President Nelson Mandela awarded Rowland the Order of Good Hope, the highest South African honour. Rowland died from cancer in London on 25 July 1998.
Personal life and death
Rowland met Josie Taylor in 1965 and married her in 1968.{{Cite web |date=1993-05-29 |title=Captain Moonlight's Notebook: Mrs Tiny Rowland breaks her silence |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/captain-moonlight-s-notebook-mrs-tiny-rowland-breaks-her-silence-2316404.html |access-date=2022-11-10 |website=The Independent |language=en}} They remained married until Rowland's death in 1998.{{Cite web |date=2003-12-20 |title=Tiny Rowland's widow loses river privacy |url=http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2003/dec/20/2 |access-date=2022-11-10 |website=the Guardian |language=en}} They had 4 children, including Toby Rowland, who would eventually co-create the video game company King in 2003.{{Cite web |date=2014-03-25 |title=Who are the Candy Crush millionaires? |url=http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/mar/25/candy-crush-king-flotation-king-entertainment-shareholder-windfalls |access-date=2022-11-10 |website=the Guardian |language=en}} Toby married the fashion writer Plum Sykes in 2005.
See also
Bibliography
- Tom Bower: Tiny Rowland. A Rebel Tycoon. London, Heinemann, 1993. {{ISBN|0-434-07339-3}}
- Richard Hall: My life with Tiny. A biography of Tiny Rowland. London, Faber & Faber, 1987. {{ISBN|0-571-14737-2}}
References
{{Reflist}}
{{Reflist|group=Makamba}}
External links
- [http://www.c-r.org/our-work/accord/mozambique/business-peace.php The business of peace: 'Tiny' Rowland, financial incentives and the Mozambican settlement] on Rowland's role in bringing an end to the civil war in Mozambique.
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rowland, Tiny}}
Category:Deaths from cancer in England
Category:Immigrants to Southern Rhodesia
Category:Immigrants to Germany
Category:People from the Bengal Presidency
Category:British people of German descent
Category:People educated at Churcher's College
Category:People interned in the Isle of Man during World War II
Category:British people of Dutch descent
Category:British mass media owners