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Rowland Allanson-Winn, 5th Baron Headley

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The Lord Headley
Born
Rowland George Allanson Allanson-Winn

(1855-01-19)19 January 1855
London, England
Died22 June 1935(1935-06-22) (aged 80)
Codford, Wiltshire, England
OccupationsMuslim scholar
Lord Headley with Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din

Rowland George Allanson Allanson-Winn, 5th Baron Headley (19 January 1855 – 22 June 1935), also known as Shaikh Rahmatullah al-Farooq, was an Irish peer and a prominent convert to Islam, who was also one of the leading members of the Woking Muslim Mission alongside Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din. He also presided over the British Muslim Society for some time.[1]

Biography

Rowland George Allanson Allanson-Winn was born in London and educated at Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge University.[2][3] He then entered Middle Temple, before commencing studies at King's College London. He subsequently became a civil engineer by profession, a builder of roads in India, and an authority on the protection of intertidal zones.

He was an enthusiastic practitioner of boxing as well as other arts of self-defence, and in 1890 co-authored, with C. Phillipps-Wolley, the classic Broad-sword and Singlestick (1890).[4] He was solo author of Boxing (1889) in the same "All-England Series" (introduced by the boxer Bat Mullins) which was reprinted in 2006.[5]

Headley embraced Islam on 16 November 1913 and adopted the Muslim name of Shaikh Rahmatullah al-Farooq. In 1914 he established the British Muslim Society. He was the author of several books on Islam, including A Western Awakening to Islam (1914) and Three Great Prophets of the World.[6] He was a widely travelled man and twice made the Hajj.

He inherited his peerage from his cousin in 1913. In 1921 he married the Australian author Barbara Baynton.[7] He became bankrupt in 1922.[8] He was offered the throne of Albania in 1925, along with $500,000 and $50,000 per year[9] but refused it, at which point Lady Headley returned to Melbourne, where she died in 1929.[7] From 1929 Headley owned and lived at Ashton Gifford House near the village of Codford in Wiltshire. His widow Lady Catherine Headley continued to live at the property until 1940.[10]

See also

References

  1. ^ http://www.wokingmuslim.org/pers/
  2. ^ "Winn, Rowland George Allanson (WN874RG)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  3. ^ The New International Yearbook, 1936
  4. ^ R. G. Allanson-Winn & C. Phillipps-Wolley, Broad-sword and Single-stick: with chapters on quarter-staff, bayonet, cudgel, shillalah, walking-stick, umbrella, and other weapons of self-defence (All-England Series.) London: George Bell, 1890.
  5. ^ http://www.amazon.com/Boxing-Prefatory-Note-Bat-Mullins/dp/054397023X for the reprinted version of the book
  6. ^ Headley's book: A Western Awakening to Islam at wokingmuslim.org
  7. ^ a b Australian Dictionary of Biography
  8. ^ Baynton, Barbara Jane (1857 - 1929) Biographical Entry - Australian Dictionary of Biography Online at www.adb.online.anu.edu.au
  9. ^ Time magazine, "London's Mosque" 28 June 1937
  10. ^ Dod's Peerage, 1942
Peerage of Ireland
Preceded by Baron Headley
1913–1935 		Succeeded by

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