Tiny Rowland

Roland "Tiny" Rowland (1917-1998) was a controversial high-profile British businessman, corporate raider and Chief Executive 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. He was known for his complex business interests in Africa, his closeness to a number of African leaders and for his rumoured cooperation with MI6 as it pertained to post-colonial British foreign policy in Africa.

Roland 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. Having been born in British India, Roland acquired automatic British citizenship by the custom of jus soli. But his parents remained "enemy aliens" for the duration of the First World War, and after the war the Fuhrhops were refused entry in to the United Kingdom. They settled in Hamburg, Germany. He was said to have been nicknamed "Tiny" by his mother because of his large size. In the 1930s, he was briefly sucked into the Hitler Youth, though his father was firmly opposed to Hitler, and would move his family to Britain in 1937 to escape Nazi Germany. Roland himself had been sent away to Britain earlier where he attended a minor public school in Hampshire, where he acquired an upper-class British accent and mannerisms.

His father moved the family to the United Kingdom in 1937, where his son had already been sent earlier to attend 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.

In 1948 Tiny Rowland emigrated 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, 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. 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. 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".

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 was defeated by Egyptian-born tycoon Mohamed Al-Fayed.

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 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.

In a boardroom coup in a coup engineered by the 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. The Cohens conjecture that 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.

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

Rowland died in London on 25 July 1998.

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 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 Matheson" 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".