Antony Duncan Rowe (4 August 1924 - 5 December 2003) was an English rower

Rowing (sport)

Rowing is a sport in which athletes race against each other on rivers, on lakes or on the ocean, depending upon the type of race and the discipline. The boats are propelled by the reaction forces on the oar blades as they are pushed against the water...

 who competed for Great Britain at the 1948 Summer Olympics  and won the Diamond Challenge Sculls

Diamond Challenge Sculls

The Diamond Challenge Sculls is a rowing event for men's single sculls at the annual Henley Royal Regatta on the River Thames at Henley-on-Thames in England...

 at Henley Royal Regatta

Henley Royal Regatta

Henley Royal Regatta is a rowing event held every year on the River Thames by the town of Henley-on-Thames, England. The Royal Regatta is sometimes referred to as Henley Regatta, its original name pre-dating Royal patronage...

 in 1950. He was later a printer in a period of significant change and developed a successful model for short-run printing.

Early life

Rowe was born at Cookham Dean

Cookham Dean

Cookham Dean is a settlement to the west of the village of Cookham in Berkshire, England. It is the highest point of all the Cookhams -Commerce:...

, Berkshire the sixth of seven children of George Rowe and his wife Molly Allen. His father had founded a stockbroking firm of Rowe & Pitman and his mother was a violinist. He was educated at Eton College

Eton College

Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....

 where he was captain of Boats and president of Pop. He left Eton during the Second World War and joined the submarine service in the Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

 straight from school. In 1944 he was posted to the Far East, and took part in the Japanese surrender of Hong Kong.

Rowing career

After the war Rowe went to Trinity College, Oxford

Trinity College, Oxford

The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity in the University of Oxford, of the foundation of Sir Thomas Pope , or Trinity College for short, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It stands on Broad Street, next door to Balliol College and Blackwells bookshop,...

 on a scholarship and read PPE. He started rowing again and was captain of Trinity College Boat Club and was a member of the Oxford

Oxford University Boat Club

The Oxford University Boat Club is the rowing club of the University of Oxford, England, located on the River Thames at Oxford. The club was founded in the early 19th century....

 crew in the 1948 Boat Race. He excelled in the single scull

Single scull

A single scull is a rowing boat used in the sport of competitive rowing. It is designed for a single person who propels the boat with two oars, one in each hand....

s participating in the 1948 Summer Olympics

1948 Summer Olympics

The 1948 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XIV Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was held in London, England, United Kingdom. After a 12-year hiatus because of World War II, these were the first Summer Olympics since the 1936 Games in Berlin...

 in the single sculls event in which he reached the semi-finals with the American Jack Kelly

John B. Kelly, Jr.

John Brendan Kelly, Jr. , also known as Kell Kelly or Jack Kelly, was an accomplished oarsman, a four-time Olympian, and an Olympic medal winner. He was also the son of triple Olympic gold medal winner John B. Kelly, Sr. In 1947, Kelly was awarded the James E...

. In 1949 he was president of O.U.B.C and in the Boat Race crew which was narrowly beaten by Cambridge. He was also runner up in the Wingfield Sculls to Farn Carpmael

Farn Carpmael

Philip Nevil "Farn" Carpmael was an English rower who won the Wingfield Sculls twice.Carpmael was born at Warwick. He was educated at Oundle School and Jesus College, Cambridge. In 1929/30, he was Captain of Jesus College Boat Club, and he rowed in the winning Cambridge crews of the Boat Race in...

. In 1950 he won the Diamond Challenge Sculls

Diamond Challenge Sculls

The Diamond Challenge Sculls is a rowing event for men's single sculls at the annual Henley Royal Regatta on the River Thames at Henley-on-Thames in England...

 at Henley. In the same year, he took part in the 1950 British Empire Games

1950 British Empire Games

The 1950 British Empire Games was the fourth edition of what is now called the Commonwealth Games. It was held in Auckland, New Zealand between the 4th and 11th of February 1950, after a 12-year gap from the 3rd edition of the games...

 taking silver medal behind the Australian Mervyn Wood

Mervyn Wood

Mervyn Thomas Wood, LVO, MBE, QPM was an Australian rower of the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. He was a four-time Olympian and three-time Olympic medalist. He later rose to become the Police Commissioner of the New South Wales Police Force.-Biography:Wood was the youngest of four children born in...

, who had won in the 1948 Olympics. Rowe coached the Oxford boat from 1954 to 1956, and in 1963

Printing career

Rowe started work with the Pitman Press at Bath. In 1954 the firm bought Western Printing Services which had provided typesetting for the trade, and Rowe became manager. During his time at Western Printing Services, the press printed the first unexpurgated Penguin edition of Lady Chatterley's Lover

Lady Chatterley's Lover

Lady Chatterley's Lover is a novel by D. H. Lawrence, first published in 1928. The first edition was printed privately in Florence, Italy with assistance from Pino Orioli; it could not be published openly in the United Kingdom until 1960...

, which other printers had fought shy of. Rowe designed and printed The Western Type Book (1960), with specimen pages of all the many different types held by Western in different sizes which became a bible for publishers' production managers. Rowe returned to the Pitman Press in 1972 . Rowe had identified a market for short-run printing and set out to make runs of 100 or less, possible, when it was generally accepted that 1,000 copies was the minimum economic run. After his retirement from Pitman Press in 1983, he established "Antony Rowe Ltd" using new techniques and equipment to cut costs, which as a result of Rowe's ability to "think small" became a successful business.
Antony Rowe Ltd has since become part of the CPI printing group and is now a leading provider of print on demand

Print on demand

Print on demand , sometimes called, in error, publish on demand, is a printing technology and business process in which new copies of a book are not printed until an order has been received...

 printing services both to traditional publishers and new self-publishing services such as CompletelyNovel.com

CompletelyNovel

CompletelyNovel is a website which allows authors to self-publish their work into a reading and writing online community. Based in the United Kingdom, the company was founded in 2008 by Oliver Brooks and Anna Lewis, the site encourages writers to make their work available for people to read in...

 which act as an intermediary between the author and the printer.

Personal life

Rowe died Upper Swainswick, Somerset at the age of 79.

Rowe married 1954 Jennifer Renwick, the daughter of the first Independent TV magnate, Sir Robert Renwick

Robert Renwick, 1st Baron Renwick

Robert Burnham Renwick, 1st Baron Renwick, KBE , known as Sir Robert Renwick, 2nd Baronet, from 1932 to 1964, was a British industrialist and public servant....

. The marriage was dissolved in 1969, and in 1970 he married Miranda Noel-Buxton (née Chisenhale-Marsh). His third marriage in 1985 was to Charlotte Savage