Ferdinand Stephen Joelson (1893-1979) was the eldest son of George Joelson, a Russian émigré who gained British citizenship about 1890. He settled in Tanganyika (later Tanzania) in 1914 as assistant manager of Kifulu Estates Ltd., rubber producers. In Aug 1914, during the East Africa Campaign, he was taken prisoner by German forces and held in Tabora prison camp. Following his release due to ill health in 1917, having contracted malaria, he served in the British Intelligence Service, based in Dar es Salaam, working as an interpreter in French, German and Swahili at military courts, and as liaison officer with the Belgian Military Mission.

On demobilisation and return to the U.K., Joelson worked as business secretary to an international financier. He had begun writing about east Africa and The Tanganyika Territory was published in 1920 by T. Fisher Unwin. In 1924 he set up a publishing company, East Africa Ltd., with himself as Chairman, to edit the journal, East Africa (from 1936, East Africa and Rhodesia) and to assist authors with similar interests. A new company, Africana Ltd., also with Joelson as Chairman, was incorporated in 1952. Publication of East Africa and Rhodesia ceased in 1967 following Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence and the imposition of sanctions by the U.K. The journal, Rhodesia and Eastern Africa, was published between August 1966 and February 1967.

In the 1940s, through the use of a questionnaire, Joelson began to gather details of the careers of individuals working in east Africa, to be published as a 'Who's Who'. The project was not completed and the information remains unpublished.

Among Joelson's publications are Eastern Africa Today (London: East Africa, 1928), Eastern Africa Today and Tomorrow (London: East Africa, 1934), Germany's Claims to Colonies (London: Hurst & Blackett, 1939), and Rhodesia and East Africa (London: East Africa, 1958). East Africa Ltd. also published numerous titles on African affairs by other authors.

Joelson pursued various business interests in east Africa, chiefly in mining, and he served as Chairman of Gold Areas of East Africa Ltd. He was a Vice-President of the Royal African Society, as well as an honorary life member and medallist 'for dedicated service to Africa'. He was thought at the time of this award to be the only U.K. medallist of the Society. He served on the Councils of the Royal Commonwealth Society, the Royal Over-Seas League, and the Anglo-Rhodesian Society, and on the committee of the Royal Commonwealth Society for the Blind, the London Committee of the Voice of Kenya, and the Overseas Committee of the Institute of Journalists.

In 1939, with Leo S. Amery (1873-1955) and other politicians, Joelson was instrumental in the founding of the Colonial League, formed to oppose German colonial claims. He was also a founder member of the Commonwealth Writers of Britain.