Sir Thomas Leslie Rowan (22 February 1908 – 29 April 1972) was a British civil servant and industrialist.
He served in the Colonial Office and HM Treasury, and was Principal Private Secretary to Winston Churchill and Clement Attlee, before joining the British Embassy in Washington, D.C., as economic minister. After some years heading the Overseas Finance Section of the Treasury, in 1966 he moved into the private sector as head of Vickers, and from 1971 until his sudden death was chairman of the British Council.
Early life
Rowan was born at Dunlavin, in County Wicklow, Ireland, then part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. He was a younger son of Thomas Rowan of Dromore West, County Sligo, a Church of Ireland clergyman and headmaster who became a missionary in British India, where Rowan spent most of his early childhood.
From 1920 to 1926, Rowan was educated as a day boy at Tonbridge School, serving as School Captain in his final year. He was in the school's First XI (cricket), First XI (hockey), and First XV (rugby)."ROWAN, Thomas Leslie, 1920–26" in Charles Harold Knott, The Register for Tonbridge School from 1900 to 1965 (Tonbridge School, 1966), p. 116 He was then an Exhibitioner at Queens' College, Cambridge,John Fforde, Richard Sidney Sayers, John Harold Clapham, The Bank of England and Public Policy, 1941–1958 (Cambridge University Press, 1992), p. 239 and also went on to captain the England men's national field hockey team. Hugh Dalton later described Rowan as "A bit too pi for me. School prefect type."Hugh Dalton, The Political Diary of Hugh Dalton, 1918–40, 1945–60 (Cape, 1986), p. 485
Career
Rowan served in the Colonial Office from 1930 to 1933, then was a civil servant in HM Treasury until 1947, but with responsibilities outside of it.
In 1941, Rowan became Assistant Private Secretary to Winston Churchill while he was British prime minister during the Second World War, and then was promoted to be Churchill's Principal Private Secretary; he remained at 10 Downing Street in this post when Clement Attlee took over as prime minister in 1945.Randolph Spencer Churchill, Martin Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill, Vol. 1, p. 1,289
In 1947, Rowan was briefly Permanent Secretary in the Office of the Minister for Economic Affairs, then from 1947 to 1949 returned to HM Treasury as Second Secretary, gaining a knighthood in the 1949 Birthday Honours. From 1949 to 1951, Rowan was economic minister at the British Embassy in Washington, D.C.,Diane B. Kunz, The Economic Diplomacy of the Suez Crisis (University of North Carolina Press, 2000), p. 221 and returned from there to head the Overseas Finance Section of HM Treasury.Peter Hennessy, Having it So Good: Britain in the Fifties (2007), p. 134 In 1966, he succeeded Sir Charles Dunphie as head of the Vickers Group, with shipbuilding and armaments divisions.Achievement Volumes 33-34 (1966), p. 4 In 1971, he became chairman of the British Council."CHAIRMAN JULY 1971 - APRIL 1972" in Annual Report (British Council, 1972), p. 2: "There have been many tributes in the press to the late Sir Leslie Rowan who died suddenly on 29 April 1972. In the all too brief time he was the Council's Chairman he never spared himself..."
Private life In 1939, Rowan was unmarried and living at Sloane House, Chelsea.National Registration Act 1939, Sloane House, Church Street, Chelsea, ancestry.co.uk, accessed 7 February 2021
In 1944, in Kensington, Rowan married Catherine Patricia Love, an officer in the Women's Royal Naval Service and a daughter of Brigadier Raymond Love, of Mayford, and they had four children, Sarah Josephine Rowan, Susannah V. Rowan, Charles Rowan and Mark D. R. Rowan.Burke's Peerage, vol. 3 (2003), p. 3834; "LOVE Catherine P / Rowan / Kensington 1a 177" in England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1916-2005 (1944, first quarter); "Miss Catherine Patricia Love" in List of Officers on the Active List of the Royal Navy (1942), p. 390 Their daughter Susannah married Johnson Tamlyn, and their granddaughter Joanna Tamlyn married Sir Henry de la Poer Beresford-Peirse, 7th Baronet.Beresford-Peirse, of Bagnall, Waterford (UK Baronet, 1814), cracroftspeerage.co.uk, accessed 5 February 2021 Their son Mark married Katharine Julia Fraser, a great-granddaughter of Simon Fraser, 13th Lord Lovat, and they have four children.Burke's Peerage, vol. 2 (2003), p. 2,414
On 13 October 1964, Rowan and his wife were the last dinner guests Winston Churchill entertained at Chartwell before his death. Lady Rowan later said of the occasion "It was sad to see such a great man become so frail".Martin Gilbert, Authorised biography of Winston S. Churchill, vol. VIII: Never Despair: Winston S. Churchill 1945–1965 (1988), p. 1,357
At the time of his death on 29 April 1972, Rowan was living in Brompton, London SW3. He left an estate valued for probate at £56,422,"ROWAN sir Thomas Leslie of 16 The Vale London S.W.3 died 29 April 1972 Probate London 4 August. £56422." in Probate Index for England and Wales (1972), p. 297 .
Honours Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB), 1946 New Year HonoursThe London Gazette, Issue 37407, 28 December 1945, p. 7 Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (CVO), 1947 Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB), The 1949 King's Birthday Honours
Major publications Arms and Economics: The Changing Challenge (Cambridge University Press, 1960) Investment and Development: The Role of Private Investment in Developing Countries (Overseas Development Institute, 1965)
External links Order of service for memorial service of Sir Thomas Leslie Rowan (1908-1972)
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