Educated at Cranbrook School and Sydney University, J. R. Rowland was selected as a diplomatic cadet in 1944. After completing a two-year course, he joined the Department of External Affairs in December 1945 and subsequently undertook his first overseas post in Moscow (1946-1948). During a long and prestigious career that spanned almost forty years, Rowland was said to have 'brought both the penetrating mind of a professional and the compassionate heart of a poet' to his diplomatic postings. Holding positions such as Ambassador to the Soviet Union (1965-1968) and Ambassador to France and Morocco (1978-1982), his extensive overseas service included London, Washington, Saigon, Malaysia, Paris, Moscow, Austria as well as several other East European countries.
Prior to retiring in December 1983, he also spent a year as a visiting fellow at the Australian National University. Even during retirement, Rowland continued his keen involvement with social issues and actively contributed his knowledge and experience to such causes as environmental protection and the need for adequate accommodation to assist the mentally ill.
Despite the elegant maturity of his poetry, Rowland described himself as 'a spare-time poet, not a professional one', stating that his verse was 'the by-product of a peripatetic diplomatic life'. Poised and lucid, his writing evokes the atmosphere and colour of landscapes or of people in their daily life. In addition to publishing six collections of his own poetry, Rowland has also been noted for his translations of poems by contemporary Russian writers such as Andrei Voznesensky and Robert Rozhdestvensky (qq.v.).
(Sources: David Anderson 'Diplomat with a Poet's Compassion.' The Australian, 8 January 1997; Contemporary Authors, Michigan: Gale, 1962-)
