Archibald Rowlands

Who was Archibald Rowlands?

Sir Archibald Rowlands GCB MBE was a British civil servant. After serving as private secretary to three Secretaries of State for War, he was Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Air Production during the Second World War. He then worked in India and later acted as a special advisor to Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the Governor-General of Pakistan.

Rowlands was born on 26 December 1892 and went to school in Penarth. He then studied at the University of Wales, obtaining a first-class degree in modern languages in 1914. He then studied at Jesus College, Oxford, with his university career being interrupted for three years during the First World War, during which he saw action as a captain in the Army Cyclist Corps; he was mentioned in dispatches and was awarded the Military MBE. In 1920, he joined the War Office as a member of the civil service, serving as private secretary to Sir Herbert Creedy, Secretary at the War Office, and then as private secretary to Viscount Hailsham, Viscount Halifax and Duff Cooper, who were successively the Secretary of State for War; Hailsham used to declare that Rowlands was the ideal private secretary. In 1936, Rowlands was seconded to the Indian Government as Adviser on Military Finance, before returning in 1939 Deputy Under-Secretary at the Air Ministry, then becoming Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Air Production in 1940.