Tony Rowe

The death notice for Tony Rowe in The Times described him as: “Submariner, Olympic oarsman, musician, poet, master printer and heroic lover.” He certainly had a full and interesting life.

Coming from a wealthy background, Rowe was educated at Eton, where he first learned to row, and in his final year was both the captain of boats, and president of Pop, the prefect’s organization. After leaving school, he joined the Royal Navy submarine service in 1942, and two years later was posted to the Far East where, in 1945, he was involved in the liberation of Hong Kong from the Japanese.

After the War, Rowe was offered a scholarship at Trinity College, Oxford, and revived his rowing career, becoming a double Blue, in 1948 and 1949. They lost to Cambridge both times, and in the latter year, Rowe was president of the Oxford University Boat Club.

Rowe was a fine sculler and reached the semi-final of the single sculls at the 1948 London Olympics. At Henley in 1949, he won the Stewards Cup with the Trinity coxless fours, and in the Wingfield Sculls that year, was beaten in the final by the defending champion Farn Carpmael. However, Rowe’s finest moment was in 1950, when he became the first English-winner of the Diamond Sculls at Henley since Tom Askwith in 1933. Later in 1950, Rowe won the single sculls silver medal at the British Empire Games behind the 1948 Olympic and Diamond Sculls winner, Merv Wood of Australia.

Rowe coached the Oxford crew on four occasions and also embarked on a successful career in printing in 1954. As the managing director of Western Printing Services, he took a gamble in 1960 to print Lady Chatterley’s Lover for Penguin Books, after the original printers, Hazell, Watson and Viney pulled out of the deal for fear of prosecution because of the controversial nature of the book. Other printers were approached, but refused on the same grounds, but then, the Pitman subsidiary Western Publishing, stepped in. The decision to print D. H. Lawrence’s novel certainly paid off for Rowe, Penguin and Western.