Classic Author Focus: Gertrude Bell

Gertrude Bell

It seems that many authors have rather dull lives, but the same cannot be said for Gertrude Bell. She was an English writer, archaeologist, political official, traveler, and administrator whose extensive knowledge of the Middle East, particularly Persia (Iran) helped form British policy after World War I. Bell was born to a wealthy and prominent family, and the death of her mother when she was three helped create a very close relationship with her father, a progressive capitalist and mill owner.

Bell’s family was rich and progressive enough to allow her to study at Lady Margaret Hall at Oxford University. There, she was the first woman at Oxford to graduate in Modern History with first-class honors, accomplished in two years. However at that time, women were not awarded degrees.

In 1892, Bell traveled to Tehran to visit her uncle, who was British minister to Persia. She loved Persia, which she described in her book, Persian Pictures, published in 1894. She spent the next decade traveling around the world, developing an interest in archaeology, mountaineering, and learning six foreign languages—Arabic, Farsi, French, German, Italian, and Turkish.

Between 1888 and 1904, she was mostly engaged in mountain climbing in the Bernese Alps and the Rockies, although she journeyed from Jerusalem to Damascus in 1889 and met the Druze people on that journey. In 1905, she returned to the Middle East, traveling mostly in Syria, and published in 1907 Syria: The Desert and the Sown, which was a success in the western world. After that, she worked on archaeological sites in Anatolia and Carchemish (in northern Syria). In 1913, she made her longest and most difficult journey, 1800 miles from Damascus to a site in northern Saudi Arabia, then to Baghdad, and back to Damascus. She was elected a Fellow of the Geographical Society in 1913 and received two medals from them.

During World War I, Bell was asked to provide her assessment of the situation in Ottoman Syria, Mesopotamia, and Arabia. She worked for the Red Cross, and she was sent to India to coordinate the activities of the Arab Bureau with the Indian government. Later, she was sent to Basra to act as a liaison between India and Cairo. She traveled extensively in the area around Basra, writing reports and drawing maps that later helped the British Army in their advance on Baghdad. After the war, she and T. E. Lawrence agreed that when the Ottoman Empire was dismantled, the Arabs should be allowed to rule independent states. She had significant input into the 1921 Cairo Conference that determined the British colonial boundaries in the east. When King Faisal was appointed in Iraq, she acted as a confidante and advisor.

In 1924, Bell was appointed the Director of Antiquities for Iraq. She was one of the first Europeans to advocate that a country’s antiquities should remain in that country.

Bell never married, although she had affairs with several men. Her greatest affair seems to have been an unconsummated one with a married man, Charles Doughty-Wylie, with whom she exchanged love letters for three years until he died at Gallipoli.

After some spates of ill health, possible depression, and troubles at work, Bell died of an overdose of sleeping pills. It is not known whether this was an accident or suicide. She was buried in the Anglican Cemetery in Baghdad, and her funeral was attended by a large crowd, the procession watched by King Faisal.

Dates: 1868-1926

Most popular works: Persian Pictures, Syria: The Desert and the Sown

Other works: Poems from the Divan of Hafiz (translator), The Thousand and One Churches (with William Mitchell Ramsey), Amurath to Amurath, The Palace and Mosque of Ukhaidir: A Study in Early Mohammedan Architecture, The Letters of Gertrude Bell

Member reviews:

• Bell, Gertrude – Tales from the Queen of the Desert (whatmeread)