London: Rami Ranger, a philanthropist businessman of Indian-origin who began his life as a refugee in Delhi during partition is now one of the richest men in Britain and was awarded with the third highest title in the British honours namely, the Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the New Year's honours list.

Born in July 1947 in Gujranwala (now in Pakistan), two months after the death of his father Shaheed Nanak Singh of Multan, he along with his seven brothers and a sister was taken by their mother to India on a train's coal tender.

Ranger studied at Modern School and later Mohindra College, Patiala, and obtained a degree in arts from the Government College, Chandigarh but discontinued studies after reaching the United Kingdom, where he had gone to study Bar at Law in May 1971.

Ranger even worked in a London branch of KFC for 35 pence an hour. After seven years, he was made redundant. After a brief stint working in retail, he set up his own freight forwarding company in 1987 with just two pounds, a typewriter, a car and a self-storage unit.

Ranger's first business was to ship cargo by sea, air and land but now is the owner and head of two huge companies – Sun Mark Ltd. and Sea Air and Land Forwarding Ltd. – doing enormous business.

Both his companies received the Queen's Award for Export Achievement 1999 and the Queen's Award for Enterprise in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013.

Ranger is also chairman of the British Sikh Association and a patron of the Princess Trust. He is also a patron of the Gandhi Statue Memorial Trust, London and had helped install a statue of Mahatma Gandhi at Parliament Square, London.

The philanthropist donated 250,000 pounds to the London Southbank University to help support and inspire students and graduates to engage in business.(IANS)