Rowland Allanson-Winn, 5th Baron Headley

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]

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
Burial placeBrookwood Cemetery
Nationality United Kingdom

 United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (-12 April 1927)

 Irish Free State
EducationBachelor of Arts
Alma materTrinity College, Cambridge, King's College, London
OccupationsMuslim scholar
OrganizationInstitution of Civil Engineers
FamilyBaron Headley

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] In 1899 he married Teresa Johnson, daughter of William H. Johnson,[6] former Wazir-wazirat (governor) of Ladakh (Jammu and Kashmir), India.[7] She died in 1919.[8]

Headley converted to 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.[9] He was a widely travelled man and twice performed the Hajj.

He inherited his peerage from his cousin in 1913. In 1921 he married the Australian author Barbara Baynton.[10] He became bankrupt in 1922.[10] He was offered the throne of Albania in 1925, along with $500,000 and $50,000 per year[11] but refused it, at which point Lady Headley returned to Melbourne, where she died in 1929.[10] 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.[12] He is buried in the Muslim section of Brookwood Cemetery.

Allanson-Winn's grave in Brookwood Cemetery

Armenian genocide stance

Baron Headley had a more balanced attitude towards the Armenian genocide, claiming that it was a case of both sides, Turks, and Armenians, killing each other and that the Turks were more numerous as victims than the Armenians. [13]

See also

References
  1. "The Woking Muslim Mission, England, 1913-1960s > Personalities".
  2. "Winn, Rowland George Allanson (WN874RG)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  3. The New International Yearbook, 1936
  4. Allanson-Winn, R. G.; Phillipps-Wolley, C. (1890). Broad-sword and Single-stick: with chapters on quarter-staff, bayonet, cudgel, shillalah, walking-stick, umbrellba, and other weapons of self-defence (All-England Series.). London: George Bell.
  5. Rowland George Allanson-Winn Headley (11 October 2004). Boxing: With prefatory note by bat Mullins. ISBN 978-0543970237.
  6. (TIWW 1923, p. 107)
  7. The Age (Melbourne), 14 February 1921:5 "About People", accessed through Trove, 28 Apr. 2017, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article201698943
  8. Hesilrige 1921, p. 463.
  9. Headley's book: A Western Awakening to Islam at wokingmuslim.org
  10. Barbara Jane Baynton (1857–1929). "Baynton, Barbara Jane (1857–1929)". Biographical entry, Australian biography database. {{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help)
  11. Time magazine, "London's Mosque" 28 June 1937
  12. Dod's Peerage, 1942
  13. The Bishop of London and Muslims

Work cited

Further reading
  • Gilham, Jamie (2020). The British Muslim Convert Lord Headley, 1855-1935. Bloomsbury. ISBN 9781350084445.
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