Michael Rowntree

Michael Rowntree (16 February 1919 - 23 September 2007) was a co-founder of the Friends' Ambulance Unit in the Second World War, a journalist, and Chairman of Oxfam for 6 years.

Rowntree was born in Roundhay^{[citation needed]}, Leeds, England, the son of Arnold Rowntree and a nephew of Joseph Rowntree. He was related to the prominent Rowntree and Harvey Quaker families. He was educated at Earnseat School in Arnside and Bootham School, the Quaker school in York, where he became head boy. He read PPE at Queen's College, Oxford for two years, but the Second World War intervened. A conscientious objector, he helped Paul Cadbury and Michael Barratt Brown to re-establish the Friends Ambulance Unit. He worked in Finland in 1940, then in Cairo, and became his FAU unit's leader in North Africa and then into Italy. He later co-ordinated the work of all FAU units in Germany.

After the war, he became a journalist at the Northern Echo in Darlington, and moved to Oxford in 1950 to become assistant general manager at the Oxford Mail and the Oxford Times. He was promoted one year later to general manager. He resigned in 1967 to concentrate on his other responsibilities, although he remained a director.^[1]

He was a director of the Friends Provident and Century Life insurance company from 1956 to 1973, and of the Friends Provident Life Office from 1973 to 1975.

He worked with Oxfam for 60 years, beginning in 1947. He became a committee member in 1951 and a trustee in 1952, and was chairman from 1971 to 1977. He became Chair Emeritus in 1991, one of only two honoured with that position. He also was a trustee of the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust and the Joseph Rowntree Social Service Trust, now the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust.^[2]

He served as vice-chairman of the Oxford Area Health Authority.

He enjoyed walking in the North York Moors, and was a keen birdwatcher. He retired to Yorkshire in 1981. He was survived by his wife, Anna Crosfield, a textiles artist, and their two daughters and a son.

References

1. ^ Oxford mail obituary
2. ^ Obituary by Michael Barratt Brown with note by Grigor McClelland in The Guardian, Tuesday 30 October 2007 and Guardian Unlimited (accessed 30 October 2007)

External links

• Choosing to be a Conscientious Objector (Personal Reminiscences) (accessed 30 October 2007)
• Oxford mail obituary (accessed 30 October 2007)
• Obituary, Yorkshire Post

Persondata
Name	Rowntree, Michael
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	16 February 1919
Place of birth
Date of death	23 September 2007
Place of death