Rowland Allanson-Winn, 5th Baron Headley

The Lord Headley
Born Rowland George Allanson Allanson-Winn
(1855-01-19)19 January 1855
London, England
Died 22 June 1935(1935-06-22) (aged 80)
Codford, Wiltshire, England
Occupation Muslim scholar
Religion Islam

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

Lord Headley with Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din

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] He is buried in the Muslim section of Brookwood Cemetery.

Allanson-Winn's grave in Brookwood Cemetery

Armenian genocide denial

Baron Headley alleged that the Armenian genocide was a case of both sides, Turks and Armenians, killing each other and that the Turks were more numerous as victims than the Armenians.[11]

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. 1 2 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
  11. ↑ The Bishop of London and Muslims
Peerage of Ireland
Preceded by
Charles Allanson-Winn		 Baron Headley
1913–1935 		Succeeded by
Rowland Allanson-Winn
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