Tiny Rowland

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Roland 'Tiny' Rowland

Roland 'Tiny' Rowland (1917 - 1998) was a British businessman and chairman of the Lonrho conglomerate from 1962 to 1994. He gained fame from a number of high-profile takeover bids, in particular his bid to take control of Harrods.

1 German background
2 Rhodesia
3 Honoured
4 Trivia
5 External links
6 See also

[edit] German background

Rowland, originally Roland Walter Fuhrhop, was born on November 27, 1917 in a World War I detention camp for aliens in India, as the child of an Anglo-Dutch mother and a German trader father. At first denied access to the United Kingdom after the war, he and his family moved to Great Britain in 1937, where he attended the renowned Churcher's College, Petersfield, Hampshire. He then worked for his uncle's shipping business in the City of London. Enlisting on the outbreak of World War 2, 'Tiny' was advised to change his German surname and chose 'Rowland', since his uncle's clerks knew him as 'Mr Roland'. He served in a Field Ambulance Unit and took part in the disastrous Norway Expedition. His father was interned as an enemy alien and when his mother became fatally ill Rowland joined them in internment.

[edit] Rhodesia

In the post-war years, Tiny Rowland moved to Rhodesia where he worked together with Eric Richard Henry Smith of Ayr, Scotland, on Luton Farm near Gwelo (now Gweru), Southern Rhodesia. Tiny Rowland had worked for Eric Smith after World War II in London as a chaffeur for a private car hire company operating out of Mayfair that was owned and operated by Eric Smith. Eric and Tiny were close friends but fell out when Tiny had an affair with Eric's then wife, Irene Smith. Rowland was recruited to the London and Rhodesian Mining and Land Company, later Lonrho, as chief executive in 1962. Under his directorship, the firm expanded out of its origins in mining and became a conglomerate, dealing in newspapers, hotels, distribution, and textiles, and many other lines of business. The Prime Minister, Edward Heath, criticised the company and described it in the House of Commons as "an unpleasant and unacceptable face of capitalism", referring to a 1973 court case over the company's management style.

In Britain, he became chairman of The Observer in 1983. However, he failed to gain control of Harrods department store in Knightsbridge, which was eventually bought by the Egyptian-born tycoon Mohamed Al-Fayed for £615 million in 1985, leading to a well-publicised feud between the two men.

[edit] Honoured

Never fully accepted by the establishment in Britain, Rowland was consistently overlooked when it came to the award of British honours. However, in 1996 President Nelson Mandela awarded Rowland the Order of Good Hope, the highest South African honour. He died in London on July 26, 1998.

[edit] Trivia

Rowland is prominently featured in the second part of the documentary The Mayfair Set by Adam Curtis, where he is profiled as a ruthless business man, jetting through Africa in order to take-over British companies in former colonies.

He was also said to have served as the model for the ruthless British businessman "Sir Edward Matherson" in the 1978 film, The Wild Geese.