Tiny Rowland

Tiny Rowland, UK entrepreneur

Roland "Tiny" Rowland (27 November 1917 – 25 July 1998) was a British businessman and chairman of the Lonrho conglomerate from 1962 to 1994. Rowland gained fame from a number of high-profile takeover bids, in particular his bid to take control of Harrods department store in Knightsbridge. He died in London on 25 July 1998.

Early life

Rowland, originally Roland Walter Fuhrhop, was born on 27 November 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. After World War I, the Fuhrhops were refused entry to the United Kingdom, and settled in Hamburg, Germany. He was said to have been nicknamed "Tiny" by his nanny because of his large size. In the 1930s, he was briefly in the Hitler Youth.

UK immigrant

His father, who despised Adolf Hitler, moved the family to the United Kingdom in 1937, where his son attended Churcher's College, Hampshire.

Rowland then worked for his uncle's shipping business in the City of London. He took his uncle's surname, 'Rowland' on his 22nd birthday. On the outbreak of World War II, 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, Tiny Rowland moved to Rhodesia where he bought a tobacco farm at Eiffel Flats in Mashonaland West province. From 1952 to 1963 he lived with Irene Smith, the wife of a business partner.

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 out of its origins in mining and became a conglomerate, dealing in newspapers, hotels, distribution, and textiles, and many other lines of business. In 1968, Lonrho acquired Ashanti Goldfields Corporation, a gold mining business in Ghana. The former Conservative minister Duncan Sandys, a director of Ashanti, became Lonrho's chairman in 1972. Sir Angus Ogilvy, married to a member of the British royal family (Princess Alexandra), was a Lonrho director and this increased media interest in the company's affairs. Ogilvy's career ended when Lonrho was involved in a sanctions-busting scandal concerning trade with Rhodesia. Prime Minister, Edward Heath, criticised the company, describing it in the House of Commons in 1973 as "an unpleasant and unacceptable face of capitalism." 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. Rowland failed in his legal attempt to block the move but was subsequently backed by shareholders and retained his position. In October 1993, Rowland was forced to step down as Chairman of Lonrho after a boardroom tussle with director Dieter Bock. He was succeeded by former diplomat Sir John Leahy.

Portrait of Rowland

This is an extract from Nick Davies' article, "Tiny Rowland - portrait of the bastard as a rebel":

"In a few respects, Tiny Rowland might claim to be considerably less nasty than other leading entrepreneurs. For example, when James Goldsmith tried to destroy Private Eye in the mid 70s, Tiny Rowland offered the magazine all the money it needed to defend itself. When Shell and BP ignored sanctions and sold oil to the white regime in Rhodesia, Tiny leaked details to the press and exposed them. He has a bizarre history of consoling fallen millionaires: Jim Slater, Ernest Saunders, Freddie Laker, Sir Hugh Fraser, John De Lorean all found him offering help as they were threatened with ruin."

Media magnate

During the 1980s, Tiny Rowland's Lonrho entered the British newspaper market, buying the Sunday newspaper The Observer in 1981 and the newly launched daily Today in 1986. Today was sold to News International the following year, while the Guardian Media Group bought The Observer in 1993. He also campaigned to gain control of Harrods department store in Knightsbridge, but was defeated by the Egyptian-born tycoon Mohamed al-Fayed.

Lockerbie film

In December 1993, a 'Financial Times' article revealed that Hemar Enterprises, makers of documentary film The Maltese Double Cross, was owned by Metropole Hotels and controlled by Tiny Rowland. Released in 1994 and produced by Allan Francovich and researched by John Ashton, the film challenged the official view that Libya was responsible for the sabotage of Pan Am Flight 103 which took off from Heathrow airport at 18:25 hours on 21 December 1988. Instead, it came up with an implausible conspiracy theory alleging that an unwitting drug mule – with links to Hezbollah and to both the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the CIA – carried the bomb on board the feeder flight Pan Am 103A at Frankfurt airport.

Influence on Lockerbie

At the insistence of Tiny Rowland, The Maltese Double Cross made no mention of:

• the break-in at Heathrow airport in the early hours of 21 December 1988;
• Pan Am 103’s highest profile victim Bernt Carlsson; or,
• Carlsson’s obvious targeting by the apartheid regime.

Shortly after the indictment of Libya in the Pan Am Flight 103 incident, Rowland had 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.

Parliamentary influence

On 7 November 1997, Labour MP Tam Dalyell began a House of Commons debate by revealing the influence of both British tycoon Tiny Rowland and Prof Black in the context of arranging a venue for the Lockerbie trial: "For the past 30 years, Nelson Mandela has been something of an icon for the left. His prestige for what he has done is absolutely unquestioned; therefore, surely, it behoves us to listen to what he says on what might be an awkward subject. The connection goes back to the time when Nelson Mandela wrote what I think was his only letter to the Rt Hon. Member for Huntingdon (Mr Major) as Prime Minister, which was about Lockerbie. I do not hide from anyone the fact that I was given a copy by Tiny Rowland. When there was a change of Government, the first meeting Mr Mandela had with my Rt Hon. Friend the Prime Minister lasted an hour and, at Mr Mandela's insistence, 40 minutes of it was taken up with Lockerbie. Mr Mandela then came to the Commonwealth Heads of Government conference in Edinburgh and made a much publicised statement saying that in his considered judgment no country should be claimant, prosecutor and judge in the same case and in a situation such as Lockerbie. That was his view and I do not think that I distort it. It was his opinion – tactfully expressed – that we should take seriously the idea of a trial in a third, neutral country. Indeed, that has been the view of South Africa, to whose personnel I have spoken, and of many other countries for a long time. The purpose of this debate is to go through – I hope without distortion – the objections to such a course of action and then to try to refute them. I believe in being totally candid with the House of Commons: I am not a lawyer, so I have taken advice. That advice comes predominantly from Professor Robert Black QC, professor of Scots Law in the University of Edinburgh. One of the tasks to which the Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, my hon. Friend the Member for Manchester, Central (Mr Lloyd), must address himself is to say why the Government lawyers believe that their opinion is superior to that of the Queen's Counsel who is professor of Scots Law in the University of Edinburgh."

Boardroom coup

In a boardroom coup 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. The Cohens conjecture that Rowland's association with Colonel Gaddafi, the Libyan leader, and the film The Maltese Double Cross contributed to the decision to dismiss Rowland.

Mandela award

In 1996, President Nelson Mandela awarded Rowland the Order of Good Hope, the highest South African honour.

Media references

Rowland is prominently featured in the second part of the documentary The Mayfair Set by Adam Curtis, where he is profiled as a ruthless businessman, 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" played by Stewart Granger in the 1978 film The Wild Geese.

The satirical magazine Private Eye frequently referred to him as "tiny but perfect", not because of any shortness in stature, but because he was always impeccably groomed.

In Australia, a champion racehorse, Lonhro, was named after him (with an intentional misspelling). As a foal, the horse was described as "tiny but perfect".

See also

• The how, why and who of Pan Am Flight 103

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

External links

• 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.

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