Timothy Landon

Brigadier James Timothy Whittington Landon K.C.V.O., (born August 20, 1942 on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada - died, Winchester, Hampshire, England July 6, 2007) served in the British Army and Omani armies and was instrumental in the development of the present Sultanate of Oman.

Born to a British Brigadier General and a Canadian mother, Tim Landon attended Eastbourne College in Sussex. As a graduate of the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, Landon was posted to the 10th Hussars. With his regiment, he traveled overland from Europe to Arabia and arrived in Oman in the mid-1960s. He was sent there as part of a British military operation to help Sultan Said bin Taimur defeat a Soviet-backed insurgency in Dhofar. He was stationed in the south as an intelligence officer, but was transferred to Muscat. There he became an integral part of the British coup to remove the old Sultan, Said bin Taimur, who in the British government's opinion had become too independent, yet backward in his thinking.

Landon, who was a close friend of the Sultan's son Qaboos from his Sandhurst days, was allowed to visit him, although the Sultan had placed his son under house arrest. Convincing a son to oust his father from the throne was no easy task. The coup occurred on July 23, 1970, when Landon was twenty seven. The Sultan was confronted at his palace and told to sign over power to his son. The only confirmed casualty in the coup was the old Sultan's foot when he inadvertently shot himself. The deposed old Sultan was flown to London on an RAF Transport, where died 2 years later in the Dorchester Hotel London. It is claimed that his greatest regret was not having Landon assassinated.

Over the next fifteen years, the young officer helped his Omani masters develop the Sultanate from a medieval backwater into a modern 20th-century state. Omani oil revenues enabled much of the country's advances and Landon became a leading advocate of "Omanisation" of the economy and government. By 1979, his own position as an advisor was very much a figurehead role and he retired to take up a diplomatic post for His Majesty Sultan Qaboos in London and to establish a new home at Faccombe, near Andover in Hampshire. The title the "White Sultan" was regarded with bemusement by Landon, who maintained His Majesty Sultan Qaboos was very much in charge of Omans destiny. Landon was simply a servant and friend there to give advice. He continued to shuttle between London and Muscat until he died, his Boeing often seen arriving or leaving Farnborough, near his home in the UK.

Wisely investing the fortune he had begun to amass thanks to his generous patron during his years in Oman, Brigadier Landon further increased his wealth through mineral exploration and farming in Africa, property and real estate investments in Europe and America and a wide range of financial portfolios in global markets. Successive estimates range Landon's fortune at US$ 750million. Noted financial analysts estimate that it was rather significantly higher. Brigadier Landon was known to be a patron of the arts and society as well as an avid conservationist, generously assisting with fundraising for foundations and charities.

Landon also played an important role as intermediary in several questionable deals like when gigant telecom company Ericsson sold telecommunications equipment to Oman in the late 1990:ies. Ericssons intermediary in the deal - Middle East Services – were fronted by the swiss lawyer Egon Kiss-Borlase - but Kiss-Borlase was really a front man for Landon. The connection was revealed by the joint investigation into Landons business by the Swedish Public Television "Uppdrag granskning" and Swedish Public Radios "Dagens Eko" in January of 2007. It was also Landon who was one of the owners behind the intermediary in another questionable deal. Valurex International, Swedish jetfighter Saab and UK defence gigant BAE:s intermediary in the 1999 bribery scandal were SAAB and BAE offered millions of dollars in bribes to Czech politicians to buy the Gripen jet-fighter. Etienne and his father Egon Kiss-Borlase once again played the role as front men.The real beneficiary of the money paid out to Valurex was the austrian Alfons Mensdorff-Pouilly, a long time agent for BAE and a relative of Landon through Landons widow Katalina Esterhazy Galantha.

As one of the main Gripen campaign agents Alfons Mensdorff-Pouilly received secret commission contract of at least 81 million Swedish crowns for the final deal in 2003 when the Czech Republic leased Gripen jetfighter.Both the Ericsson Oman deal and the SAAB/BAE deal has been the focus of several police and parliamentary investigations. By 2008 investigations had opened in the Czech republic, Hungary, Sweden, Great Britain, United States, Switzerland, and Austria. [See "Uppdrag granskning" 20070220, 20070227 and 20080116 www.svt.se ]

Tim Landon was also involved in the smuggle of a Bofors cannon to the sultanate of Oman in the 1980:ies. "Sultan Quaboos of Oman got it into his head that his security would be enhanced if his yacht was kitted out with the Bofors guns. He wanted the Bofors guns and the government in Sweden objected to this deal, and this is where Landon and his associates always came into play. If something was denied them by diplomatic channels they would take the scenic route." [Interview with author John Besant "Uppdrag granskning" and "Dagens Eko" 20080116.]

In 1977 Tim Landon married Katalina Esterhazy Galantha, a descendant of the aristocratic Esterhazy family of Hungary and first cousins of the Habsburg Dynasty. The marriage produced a son, Arthur, who studied film production and has begun to be involved in his family business affairs in recent years. An intensely private man, there was little sinister or controversial about him. Landon maintained a low profile to protect his master the Sultan, the Sultanate of Oman, himself and his relatives.

ee also

*Dhofar Rebellion

External links

* [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/news/2007/07/12/db1201.xml Obituary, "The Daily Telegraph", 12 July 2007]
* [http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2763536.ece "The extraordinary life of the White Sultan", "The Independent", 12 July 2007 ]
* [http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070714.LANDON14/TPStory/TPInternational/Europe/ "Life of the White Sultan shrouded in controversy", "Globe and Mail", 14 July 2007]
* [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article2106464.ece Obituary, "The Times", 20 July 2007]