Gertrude Margaret Lowthian Bell

[Ahmed1984]

 

Gertrude Margaret Lowthian Bell

 

She is an English Traveler,explorer,archeologist,diplomatic and political..

she born in England in 1868. dead in Baghdad in 1926 at age 57..

She worked as consulting for the  High Commissioner of UK in Iraq sir Percy Cox , she and Cox  created current Iraq  (kingdom of Iraq )after the great public pressure which cause it the Iraqi revolution in 1920 against British occupation.

After her duty finished inside Iraq she refused to go back to England,so she made another reason to stay in Iraq by establishing the first museum in Iraq,called Baghdad museum(Iraqi Museum later), and she became the 1st manager for the museum.

 

She loved Iraq as much as she loved her home country,and it seems she chose to die in Iraq after she took overdose from her medicine before sleeping, in 12 Jul 1926.

 

attended her funeral nobles and king Faisal 1st. she buried in English cemetery in Baghdad,in 2018 I have visited her grave and documented it ..photos will be attach with post, her grave near by the grave of USA consul Mr. Charlie who dead in 1916 ten years early than her.

 

the famous archaeologist sir Max Malone said in his diary that Bell fought against English and American archaeologists about the discovered archaeological finds for Iraqi museum ..

Edited 26 December , 2020 by Ahmed1984

[Kimberley John Lindsay]

Dear Ahmed,

Thanks for that.

For creating Iraq she got a relatively modest CBE...

Kindest regards,

Kim.

[Muerrisch]

56 minutes ago, Kimberley John Lindsay said:

Dear Ahmed,

Thanks for that.

For creating Iraq she got a relatively modest CBE...

Kindest regards,

Kim.

 

How is a CBE relatively modest please? In those days the possible honours were [from the bottom] 

BEM, MBE, OBE or ISO, CBE, the latter being a little short of a knighthood.

[Kimberley John Lindsay]

Dear Muerrisch,

Yes, of course the CBE was, is, and will remain a high honour.

But the absolutely brilliant and highly-thought of Arabist Bell (such animals were few and far between at the time), almost single-handedly created Iraq - which was arguably deserving of more than a CBE - which was routinely awarded to any number of senior officers during the Great War, for comparitively minor services.

Kindest regards,

Kim.

[Muerrisch]

I cannot argue:  I passed up a cast-iron OBE at c. Group Captain/ Colonel level for a six year overseas tour in a trouble spot, far from the gaze of those who recommend gongs, and my successor, safe at HQ, got the OBE. To be truthful, six years in a difficult post were worth far more than a shiny gong.

I thought then, and am sure now, that the Honours system stinks. The only time I put forward a junior officer for an MBE he was stuffed by Falklands War rationing. Thereafter I refused to put anyone forward, and refused any suggestion for me. The system awards bumsuckers and yesmen.

[Kimberley John Lindsay]

Dear Muerrisch,

I sympathise, but not out of personal experience.

One had, and has, to be seen by the right people, when doing something outstanding, and then be recommended. 

My grandfather got the MC for a 1 Sep 1918 action. He was a Captain and a Coy Cdr. He was wounded and half the battalion were casualties - but the Peronne attack was a success, making the awards, including a VC, justified.

My father (off-topic) was a T/Coy Cdr (Lieut.) and despite two KiA, defeated a stronger enemy force. MiD. Later, following two ME campaigns involving evacuations as T/Captain and Adjutant he was awarded the MC. He always rated his MiD action higher...

One of Dad's cronies in the Pacific War wrote to me, referring to his own OBE as Other Bu**ers Efforts...

Kindest regards,

Kim.

[michaeldr]

Ahmed,

 

Many thanks for your photographs, especially that of Gertrude Bell's grave. All things considered, it looks in good shape. It was restored in 2001-02: has it been done again more recently?

 

Best regards

Michael

Edited 27 December , 2020 by michaeldr

[Ahmed1984]

3 hours ago, michaeldr said:

Ahmed,

 

Many thanks for your photographs, especially that of Gertrude Bell's grave. All things considered, it looks in good shape. It was restored in 2001-02: has it been done again more recently?

 

Best regards

Michael

Thanx Michael

i appreciate your interesting..

regarding the grave restored ,I have no idea if done recently..

regards 

Ahmed 

 

[Ahmed1984]

6 hours ago, Kimberley John Lindsay said:

Dear Muerrisch,

I sympathise, but not out of personal experience.

One had, and has, to be seen by the right people, when doing something outstanding, and then be recommended. 

My grandfather got the MC for a 1 Sep 1918 action. He was a Captain and a Coy Cdr. He was wounded and half the battalion were casualties - but the Peronne attack was a success, making the awards, including a VC, justified.

My father (off-topic) was a T/Coy Cdr (Lieut.) and despite two KiA, defeated a stronger enemy force. MiD. Later, following two ME campaigns involving evacuations as T/Captain and Adjutant he was awarded the MC. He always rated his MiD action higher...

One of Dad's cronies in the Pacific War wrote to me, referring to his own OBE as Other Bu**ers Efforts...

Kindest regards,

Kim.

Hi Kim 

i think you both go off topic ..

We need more information about 

this lady,Cox and Iraq establishment 

best regards 

Ahmed 

 

[michaeldr]

1 hour ago, Ahmed1984 said:

We need more information about 

this lady,

 

Ahmed,

I can recommend the book 'Bezique - the private life of Gertrude Lothian Bell' by Graham Best, published by Stoneman Press in 2018 (ISBN 978 1 9996649 0 9)

Good luck with your research

Michael

[Ahmed1984]

4 minutes ago, michaeldr said:

Ahmed,

I can recommend the book 'Bezique - the private life of Gertrude Lothian Bell' by Graham Best, published by Stoneman Press in 2018 (ISBN 978 1 9996649 0 9)

Good luck with your research

Michael

 

4 minutes ago, michaeldr said:

Ahmed,

I can recommend the book 'Bezique - the private life of Gertrude Lothian Bell' by Graham Best, published by Stoneman Press in 2018 (ISBN 978 1 9996649 0 9)

Good luck with your research

Michael

Thanx a lot Michael . I will start read it 

 

Ahmed 

[Gibbo]

There is a lot of information about her on Newcastle University's website, including access to her diary and papers.

 

https://research.ncl.ac.uk/gertrudebell/gertrudebellarchive/

[Ahmed1984]

Thank you Gibbo 

[frev]

19 hours ago, michaeldr said:

Ahmed,

I can recommend the book 'Bezique - the private life of Gertrude Lothian Bell' by Graham Best, published by Stoneman Press in 2018 (ISBN 978 1 9996649 0 9)

Good luck with your research

Michael

 

And I loved "Daughter of the Desert - The Remarkable Life of Gertrude Bell" by Georgina Howell, published by Macmillan 2006

 

A truly fascinating lady!

Cheers, Frev

[michaeldr]

 

On 26/12/2020 at 21:59, Kimberley John Lindsay said:

For creating Iraq she got a relatively modest CBE...

 

Regarding the recognition which Gertrude Bell was given for her work in the middle-east;

she probably suffered a) as the only woman amongst so many men and b) those same men may well have found her intellect intimidating or perhaps in the second & third decades of the 20^th century, they simply had no experience of working closely with a woman on an equal basis

 

There's no doubt that she was bright; per wiki - Oxford at 17 years old and a first class degree in only two years.

 

Her award of the CBE was “for Services in connection with the War” and dates from the Birthday Honours 4^th June 1917, only a year after she began working for Cox in Basra. She seems to have got nothing for the later work which she did for Iraq. Hogarth's obituary for her mentions “Not given to any sort of self advertisement, she escaped ….. that advertisement by others...”

 

The only woman (Cairo 1921?)

 

 

Edited 28 December , 2020 by michaeldr

[FROGSMILE]

On 27/12/2020 at 07:36, Ahmed1984 said:

Hi Kim 

i think you both go off topic ..

We need more information about 

this lady,Cox and Iraq establishment 

best regards 

Ahmed 

 

While in Turkey, Lieutenant Colonel Charles Doughty-Wylie of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers – who had married Lilian Wylie three years earlier – began an affair with Gertrude Bell.  Their relationship is depicted in Werner Herzog’s film, Queen of the Desert, starring Nicole Kidman as Gertrude Bell opposite Damian Lewis as Doughty-Wylie.  I think it was probably a chaste, but passionately intellectual affair due to the stifling social morality of the day (by contemporary standards), but no one knows for sure.  They exchanged love letters from 1913 until his death.

 

Bell certainly seemed to have passionate feelings for him (even if unconsummated) and she was apparently devastated when he was killed leading an infantry assault on a key position during the landings at Gallipoli in 1915.  An act for which he received a posthumous Victoria Cross.  He was 46 years old when shot in the face by a sniper at the very point of success in securing the enemy objective.  Bell doesn’t seem to have had any similar romantic relationship subsequently.

 

Lieutenant Colonel Doughty-Wylie was the British consul in Mersina, Ottoman Empire, during the Young Turk Revolution of 1909.  Massacres of Armenians in Mersina started along with the revolution, and a contemporary there at the time said that it was largely due to the efforts of Doughty-Wylie that these were halted. Doughty-Wylie then went to Adana, forty miles away, where he persuaded the local Vali (Governor) to give him a small escort of Ottoman troops and a bugler; with these he managed to restore order. An eyewitness said that by the time an armed party from HMS Swiftsure, a British Battleship arrived, Doughty-Wylie had again almost stopped the massacre single-handedly. Newspaper reports of the period record that Doughty-Wylie was shot in the arm while trying to prevent the Adana massacres.

 

 

Edited 28 December , 2020 by FROGSMILE

[michaeldr]

There's an excellent article here https://www.rorystewart.co.uk/the-queen-of-the-quagmire/ by Rory Stewart, first published in the New York Review of Books, 27 October, 2007.

A long read, but well worth it.

And yet another article which is worth the reading time can be see here https://eleanorscottarchaeology.com/els-archaeology-blog/2017/3/17/the-death-of-gertrude-bell

[Kimberley John Lindsay]

She seems to have got nothing for the later work which she did for Iraq. 

Dear michaeldr and FROGSMILE,

Thanks for that.

It puts her CBE in even better perspective!

Kindest regards,

Kim.

[ForeignGong]

36 minutes ago, Kimberley John Lindsay said:

She seems to have got nothing for the later work which she did for Iraq. 

Dear michaeldr and FROGSMILE,

Thanks for that.

It puts her CBE in even better perspective!

Kindest regards,

Kim.

She may have received something but did not ask for permission to wear from the Foreign Office, hence no LG.

[FROGSMILE]

She was known personally to Winston Churchill and viewed by him as a female equivalent to TE Lawrence (of Arabia), with whom she seems to have shared a certain singleness of mind.  Indeed the two were known to each other.

 

Edited 28 December , 2020 by FROGSMILE

[Kimberley John Lindsay]

Dear All and ForeignGong,

Georgina Howell's DAUGHTER OF THE DESERT: The Remarkable Life of Gertrude Bell (Macmillan 2006), contains a photo of Sir Percy Cox and Gertrude Bell at Basra, 1916.

Both worked closely together and had similar aims and asprirations for what became Iraq.

It is worth noting that Sir Percy Cox was awarded, 1) KCIE, 2) KCSI, 3) GCIE, 4) KCMG, and 5) GCMG.

Gertude Bell was awarded, 1) CBE.

Any more questions?

Kindest regards,

Kim.

[Kimberley John Lindsay]

Dear FROGSMILE,

Thanks for the interesting Cameleer group!

One admires the sang-froid of the lady standing at extreme left, with her left foot alongside the large hoof of Clementine Churchill's camel.

Gertrude Bell obviously did not seek honours and awards. Likewise Lawrence (prominent amongst the group shown), who refused a CMG and a DSO from King George the Fifth, telling him that his, Lawrence's, Arabs had been treated shabbily. The King later said: 'I was left holding the boxes.'

Kindest regards,

Kim.

[michaeldr]

4 hours ago, ForeignGong said:

She may have received something but did not ask for permission to wear from the Foreign Office, hence no LG.

 

While that may have been technically possible, it is to my mind at least, highly unlikely.

 

Were all her family and friends also kept in the dark about such a later award?

Having already accepted one gong in 1917, then why would a second be hidden from view so completely?

 

As I said, highly unlikely.

Edited 29 December , 2020 by michaeldr

[FROGSMILE]

I smell quite a degree of sexism and condescension in the attitude of the British Institution towards Gertrude Bell that was perhaps typical of that time. 

[michaeldr]

1 hour ago, FROGSMILE said:

I smell quite a degree of sexism and condescension in the attitude of the British Institution towards Gertrude Bell that was perhaps typical of that time. 

Agreed

There is a quote from Sykes on Bell which qualifies as misogyny