This entry about Gertrude Bell first appeared in a Dispatch, the updates sent to all Society members. You can join for free here.

---

Authors Note: This look at the life of Gertrude Bell wasn’t easy to write. In fact, it took months of constant work for us to end up with this final product. Most stories have their challenges, but this one took so long because of the sheer amount of things that Bell did. Where to even begin when even just the dot points of her life are four pages long?

The photo perhaps says it all.

It features a group of figures, seated on camels, posed in front of the Great Sphinx in Egypt. Perhaps the most recognisable figure sits on the left, that belonging to Winston Churchill. To the right of Churchill, two people down, sits T.E. Lawrence, the famed ‘Laurence of Arabia’.

In the middle of the two figures sits a woman. Dressed in furs despite the desert environment, she commands the central position. That woman is Gertrude Bell, writer, explorer, diplomat and archaeologist. Also known in the Middle East as ‘Al Khatun’, she discovered ancient ruins, climbed mountains, created kings and literally drew the borders of the Middle East.

The Wild Child

Born in 1868 as the eldest child in what was, at the time, the sixth richest family in England, her background was privileged. But, not without heartbreak, losing her mother from childbirth complications when Gertrude was only three. Her mother gone, she formed an extremely close relationship with her father, the 2nd Baronet Sir Hugh Bell. This relationship was to continue throughout her life, with constant letters between the two.

Despite his wealth and societal position, the Baronet was quite liberal-minded. He encouraged Gertrude to learn about government and introducing her to government ministers. Not long past her seventh birthday, her father remarried. Her new stepmother, Florence Bell, further encouraged young Gertrude’s education. A playwright herself, she instilled a love of reading and writing. Keen to give her the best education possible, Gertrude was home-schooled instead of the more limited local education for girls. This wouldn’t last forever. The extremely energetic and ‘naughty’ child, always off climbing cliffs and exploring, was sent to the forward-thinking Queens College. It was unusual for a woman of her social standing. Most women in her position would have been presented to society and shopped around to find a suitable husband. But, from the early days, it was clear that Gertrude Bell wasn’t going to have a normal society life. It is also said that her enrolment at Queen College may have also been done to finally bring an element of calm back to the house.

Persia Pictures and Lost Loves

After excelling at Queens College, from there she went straight to Oxford, which only recently opened to women in an extremely limited capacity. Tearing through her history course in only two years, she became the first woman to ever graduate from the course.

Although technically, because she was a woman, her degree was only honorary.

It didn’t bother Gertrude. Calling on her family’s connections, she set off travelling with her uncle, Sir Frank Lascelles, through Bucharest and Paris before later heading off in 1892 to join him in Persia. She took to the area with great passion, studying Arabic and Persian, having already previously learned French and German. It was during this time that her first book, a documented account of her travels called ‘Persia Pictures’, was written.

It’s also during this time that she first met Henry Cadogan, her uncle’s secretary. Bonding over a love of Hafiz poetry, they announced their engagement shortly afterward. Despite his love for his daughter, her father rejected the match. Cadogan was poor, and whether it was the issue of social standing or the possibility of her father afterward having to provide for the entire Cadogan family, the match wasn’t to be. With her engagement denied, Bell travelled home to England to convince her parents of a future with Henry. Sadly, it wasn’t to be. Whilst she was away, Henry contracted pneumonia and passed away, alone, in his lodgings.

Instead of wallowing in her heartbreak, Gertrude shortly afterward headed to Italy and Switzerland. She aimed to train to be an alpine climber, and through the sport, take her mind off her lost love. She took it with great passion over the years, her childhood love of climbing coming back to the fore. However, it wasn’t without its risk. On one occasion she spent 48 hours perilously clinging to a rope on the side of a cliff after an ascent of the Finsteraarhorn went wrong.

Travel Refocused

Her heartache fading over the years, it wasn’t long before the exploration bug bit again. In 1897 she decided to travel the world with her brother Maurice, visiting Mexico, the US, Japan, China, Egypt, Greece and Turkey. However, whilst in Italy, she met up with renowned archaeologist David Hogarth and found her true passion: archaeology. Undertaking a study in Greek antiquities, it wasn’t long until she went exploring, stopping in at Athens, Syria, Lebanon and eventually settling in Jerusalem. All the while she kept studying, adding Hebrew and Arabic to her language arsenal. In 1899 she left Jerusalem to head out and photograph the ancient sites of Petra, Palmyra and Baalbek.

It should be noted how unusual travel was in this region to begin with, let alone for a woman travelling largely independently. Whilst she had an entourage to assist her and wasn’t short of the luxuries of home, including china sets and comfortable lodgings, danger still surrounded her. It’s rumoured that she carried twin pistols in holsters beneath her dress, just in case.

These excursions sharpened her skills as a writer, photographer and archaeologist. In fact, the images she captured then are still used today by modern archaeologists. Instead of heading home in comfort after receiving a sizeable inheritance from her grandfather, she instead used it to fund an expedition throughout the Middle East, visiting areas little known to Western eyes. It is this experience she used to form the basis of her next book, “The Desert and the Sown”.

Mesopotamia

With her latest book completed, she then headed off with archaeologist and noted scholar Sir William Ramsey. Travelling along the Euphrates River, she explored Mesopotamia, now modern-day Iraq, Syria and Turkey. During this time, she documented ancient ruins and assisted in the excavation of Binbirkilise.

It’s also during this time she met Charles “Richard” Doughty-Wylie.

Doughty-Wylie is best known today for his attempts in trying to stop the Armenian genocide. Intervening against the Ottoman empire despite being wounded in the process, it is estimated that he saved over 20,000 lives through his actions.

His second claim to fame is his platonic affair with Bell. Wylie was married, and by all accounts, faithful. Faithfulness aside, it’s clear that the two had a strong and deep affection for each other, their love letters to each other surviving until this day.

Bell wasn’t about to let forbidden love deter her from adventure. After hearing stories of an unknown ruin from her long-time guide, she explored and documented the ruins of Ukhaidur. This was a ruin that no Western explorer had previously seen. She sketched, documented, mapped and photographed the site, hoping this discovery would finally make her name as an archaeologist.

It wasn’t to be.

On the way back from her journey she stopped in at Babylon, meeting up with German archaeologist Robert Koldewey. Full of excitement she shared her discovery with them. Shortly after she left, a few members of the team, using more efficient methods refined at Babylon, immediately went to the site and mapped it. In publishing ‘their’ discovery before hers, Bell was denied the recognition of her efforts.

Not deterred, in 1909 she visited the ancient site of Carchemish. It’s on this site that she met a young archaeologist named Thomas Edward Lawrence. He’s now best known by his nickname earned later in life, the famed ‘Lawrence of Arabia’. She struck up a friendship with Lawrence, both having attended Oxford history and both speaking fluent Arabic. Working on this site and others alongside Ramsey and Lawrence, she co-wrote The Thousand and One Churches with Ramsey. Once the book was completed, and after a frightening incident of being held hostage for 11 days in the city of Ha’il, she headed home for a break. Right in time for World War One to break out.

World War One

With World War One quickly spiralling out of control, she immediately volunteered as a Red Cross worker, firstly in France and then later in England. By sheer coincidence, the wife of Charles Doughty-Wylie, Judith Doughty-Wylie, was stationed at the same location. The two met and exchanged pleasantries. However, not long afterwards Gertrude wrote to Charles asking him to discourage his wife from organising any further meetings.

Both women had much to worry about, with Doughty-Wylie commanding troops at Gallipoli. Her brother, serving on the Western Front in France was shortly afterward wounded in action and sent home. And then came the news she dreaded: Doughty-Wylie had been killed in action. Shot and killed by a sniper during an assault in the Gallipoli campaign, he was posthumously awarded a Victoria Cross for his bravery. This, after Henry Cadogan, was the second love that Bell had lost.

There are reports of a woman arriving at Gallipoli, whilst the campaign was ongoing, to lay a floral wreath on the beach for Doughty-Wylie. Whilst initially assumed to be his wife, modern historians strongly believe it was Gertrude Bell. It certainly fits with her personality.

Almost immediately afterward she was called to assist, because of her knowledge of the region, with the British Intelligence efforts as part of the Arab Bureau. As an intelligence officer, her first act was to create the first official report on the Armenian genocide, a last nod to Doughty-Wylie.

The Arab Revolt

As the First World War stagnated, Bell saw her unique knowledge about the Middle East in high demand. The Ottoman Empire had ruled over the region for centuries. Allied with the Germans, they were sending troops via a railway between Mecca and Damascus. The Emir of Mecca, Arab leader Sherif Hussein bin Ali, had long been trying to rally a movement against the oppressive leadership. He soon received an offer: The British would provide arms and advisors if he revolted against the Ottomans. In return, he and his people would receive an independent Arab state when the war was won. This plan was known as the ‘Arab Revolt’. Sent to assist in the revolt was one T.E. Lawrence, part of the Arab Bureau and the same man Bell had met years earlier. With Bell providing frequent and highly accurate local intelligence, including the location of water sources and geographical features, Lawrence and Hussein bin Ali were successful in their plan, simultaneously creating the legend of ‘Lawrence of Arabia”.

Gertrude Bell, meanwhile, was omitted from the story, but it wouldn’t have happened without her.

In 1917, the British took Baghdad and Bell was established as the ‘Oriental Secretary’, a liaison between the British and the new government of the region. What she didn’t know, as she and Lawrence worked to establish a new Arab state, was that larger forces were at play. An agreement, known as the Sykes-Picot Agreement, had been plotted in secret between representatives of Great Britain, France, Italy and Russia. The agreement called for the newly captured territory to instead be divided up between all victorious forces. The United States wasn’t included and wasn’t even aware of the arrangement. It was a plan so secret that it only came to light because of the fall of Imperial Russia in the Russian revolution.

It was a mess. Hussein, instead of presiding over a new promised Arab nation, was promised a fraction of Palestine. That same promise was given to the French and a growing Zionist movement wanting an independent Jewish state. A later declaration known as the Balfour Declaration gave it entirely to the Zionists. Both Lawrence and Bell, who helped Hussein to victory, strongly opposed the move. Despite their objections, it was approved almost unanimously. Soon afterward, Gertrude was hospitalised with ‘exhaustion’.

The Cairo Conference

After her stay, Bell was tasked with finding a solution for this sudden ‘Middle East Problem’. Drawing on her knowledge of the area, she wrote ‘Self Determination in Mesopotamia’, arguing for the independent state of Iraq. The British, however, didn’t think the Arab people were capable of government. Instead, along with the French, Italians and Americans, wanted a puppet government. The Iraqi people disagreed, both with the current situation and the judgment on their abilities and started the Iraq Revolt in 1920. Tasked with solving the mess they had created, the British now lent heavily on the advice of Lawrence and Bell. They both knew the people, the languages and the area, better than anyone. They suggested Faisal bin Hussein, Sharif Hussein’s son. Not only was he effectively royalty and Sunni Muslim, but was descended from upper-standing Shia Muslims.

The Cairo conference was called, with 40 delegates meeting in Cairo to fix the issue. Whilst there, they also planned to draw the boundaries of Mesopotamia, in a classic colonialism fashion. The only woman invited, the solution suggested by Bell and Lawrence was finally approved, and just like that, Iraq was created.

Becoming ‘Al-Khatun’

With the fledgling country now approved, it now had to run like one. As expected, it now fell to Bell to teach and advise Faisal I how to govern it. Sitting by his side, she drew the borders of the country, also simultaneously creating the borders of Jordan and Saudi Arabia. The people of Iraq called her ‘Al-Khatun’, or ‘advisor to the king’. Not that ‘advisor’ tells the full story: she created the king, the government and the country itself. Just as the government found its feet, she was sidelined by internal politics.

So, with King Faisal’s support, she formed the Baghdad Antiques Museum, now the Iraq Museum. She was made the Director of Antiquities and the initial offerings were all from her own private collection, all collected, catalogued and studied by Bell on her travels.

But, the stress of this political wrangling and colonial division took a toll on her. In 1925, she returned to England, suffering from exhaustion. She returned to Iraq in 1926 but stayed out of politics, choosing to return to travelling and exploring. One night in July, she retired to her room and was found there the next morning after a sleeping pill overdose. She was 58.

Her funeral, held in Baghdad, was attended by hundreds of people. Whilst through modern eyes she is (rightly) criticised for her role in colonialism and drawing up the borders of others, she is recognised in the region for her attempts to give the people their own self-determination. In perhaps the highest compliment, Gertrude Bell was referred to as “one of the few representatives of His Majesty’s Government remembered by the Arabs with anything resembling affection”.

The Legacy of Gertrude Bell

Her life was one of twin forces, pulling her in opposite directions. She spent her whole life between worlds, and not really belonging to either. A firm believer that she could do anything a man could, she also opposed suffrage for other women. She craved adventure and discovery of the new, but also couldn’t shake the luxury and etiquette of her upbringing. She wanted an independent free state for the Arab people but also thought they would benefit from the ‘civilising’ influence of a British model. A strong supporter of the greatness of the British empire, her greatest failures were ultimately in stopping it from acting for its own interests. And, despite her wealth and fame, personal happiness eluded her. Both chances of love suffered from untimely deaths. Her greatest archaeological discovery was stolen from under her nose. Despite her achievements, she suffered from depression and a sense of failure her whole life.

Her six travel books still remain in print to this day but her extraordinary life has largely faded from public knowledge. Her friend Elizabeth Robins wrote that “no Englishwoman of her distinction was ever so little known to the English-speaking public”. The fact that she was a woman in a man’s world no doubt influenced this lack of recognition.

But, I also think this is partly because her life is so hard to encapsulate. We struggled for months to write this piece on her, as her story is more befitting a mini-series than short storytelling. Where do you even begin with this writer, traveller, political officer, archaeologist, explorer, cartographer and spy? And, with her influence still reverberating across the region to this very day, where does her story end?