Gertrude Bell

Traveler, political officer, archaeologist, writer

• Born: July 14, 1868
• Place of Birth: Place of birth: Washington New Hall, England
• Died: July 12, 1926
• Place of Death: Place of death: Baghdad, Mandatory Iraq

Education: Queens’ College; Lady Margaret Hall at Oxford University

Significance: Gertrude Bell was a British archaeologist, traveler, and political officer. She spent many years traveling the Middle Eastern desert. Bell is best known for helping to establish the country of Iraq.

Background

Gertrude Margaret Lowthian Bell was born on July 14, 1868, in Washington New Hall, England. She was born into an upper-class family. Her father was Sir Hugh Bell, who had gotten his wealth from the family’s ironworking business. Her mother, Mary Shield, died after giving birth to Bell’s brother, Maurice, when Bell was just three years old. Sir Hugh Bell raised the children on his own until he married Florence Olliffe, who became a loving stepmother to the children.

Bell was an adventurous and bossy child who loved to read. She was educated at Queens’ College and then attended Lady Margaret Hall at Oxford University, where she received a degree in modern history. She was very assertive, and her views sometimes clashed with those of her professors. Despite this, she was she received the highest grade in her studies.

After college, she began studying Persian in preparation for a trip to the Middle East. Bell was traveling to Persia with her aunt Mary and uncle Sir Frank Lascelles, who served as a British ambassador to Tehran. They arrived in Persia in June 1892. From the second she arrived, Bell fell in love with the people and culture of the new country.

Life’s Work

Bell became fluent in Persian and Arabic and later learned German, French, and Italian. She toured the Middle East extensively and participated in activities such as hunting, dancing, shooting, fishing, and gardening. She loved adventure and became a gifted mountain climber. In 1899, she climbed to the top of La Meije in the French Alps. Because she was a woman, she was expected to dress properly in a skirt. When climbing, she either removed the skirt and climbed in her undergarments or wore pants that she quickly replaced with a skirt when she was done climbing. In 1901 she became the first person to climb seven peaks of the Engelhörner range in the Swiss Alps.

Bell traveled to Jerusalem, where she learned how to ride a horse. She was staying at a local convent, and the nuns there made her a special long split skirt to wear while she was riding. She then journeyed throughout the desert on horseback. The experience helped her learn how to survive the extreme temperatures and conditions of the desert. In addition, her traveling acquaintances taught her how to present herself to the sheiks of the tribes they encountered. She was easily able to impress the sheiks with her knowledge of the history and languages of the land, despite the fact she was a woman traveling mostly alone.

Bell garnered a small following during her travels, and she earned the respect of the locals. She came to be known as the Queen of the Desert. In addition to her travels, she wrote and took photos; she also was interested in archaeology and cartography. She documented ancient ruins and current topography and published several works.

When World War I began, Bell traveled to France to work with the Red Cross Wounded and Missing Enquiry Department in November 1914. There, she helped to develop a system to record information about wounded soldiers. Although she missed traveling, she enjoyed the office work. She then went to London to work at the wounded and missing department there.

The British military appointed Bell as a military intelligence officer and sent her back to the Middle East. The British wanted to gain access to oil from the Turks and prevent India from taking control of Mesopotamia. Bell, herself, wanted to unify the Middle East. She moved to Baghdad in April 1917 to concentrate on establishing an independent Arab state.

Over time, she saw Arabic become the official language of the area. A court system was established to appease the Sunnis and Shia groups, and schools were opened. Boundaries were eventually drawn, and Faisal ibn Hussein was installed as king in 1921. Bell saw her dream realized with the independent Arab state of Iraq.

In 1925, she traveled home to England but found that her family had lost its wealth. She was in ill health and advised not to travel back to the harsh climate of Iraq. Bell considered Baghdad her home and ignored the doctor’s request. When she arrived back in Iraq, she contracted pleurisy. She became depressed and died from an overdose of pills on July 12, 1926.

Impact

Bell spent many years traveling and learning about the Middle East. She used this knowledge to help establish the modern state of Iraq in the early twentieth century. The Arab world had great respect for Bell, dubbing her "al-Khatun" and "Queen of the Desert." Her legacy lived on after her premature death, and her story was told in the 2015 film Queen of the Desert, which starred actress Nicole Kidman as Bell. A year later, the documentary Letters from Baghdad took another look at Bell’s life. The film was produced by Oscar-winning actress Tilda Swinton, who also voiced Bell in the documentary.

Personal Life

When Bell first arrived in Persia, she started a relationship with Henry Cadogan, a British legation secretary. The two were later engaged, but Bell’s parents did not approve. Bell ended the engagement, and Cadogan died a year later. During World War I, Bell met a married solider named Charles Doughty-Wylie. For several years, they wrote letters to each other but parted ways when he would not divorce his wife. Doughty-Wylie later was killed in a battle in Gallipoli.

Bibliography

Buchan, James. "Miss Bell’s Lines in the Sand." Guardian, 11 Mar. 2003, www.theguardian.com/world/2003/mar/12/iraq.jamesbuchan. Accessed 30 Sept. 2024.

Foulkes, Debbie. "Gertrude Bell (1868–1926) Explorer, Instrumental in Founding Iraq." Forgotten Newsmakers, 12 Jan. 2011, forgottennewsmakers.com/2011/01/12/gertrude-bell-1868-%E2%80%93-1926-explorer-instrumental-in-founding-iraq/. Accessed 30 Sept. 2024.

Freeman, Colin. "How Gertrude Bell Caused a Desert Storm." Telegraph, 12 July 2016, www.telegraph.co.uk/films/2016/07/12/how-gertrude-bell-caused-a-desert-storm/. Accessed 30 Sept. 2024.

Hitchens, Christopher. "The Woman Who Made Iraq." Atlantic, June 2007, www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2007/06/the-woman-who-made-iraq/305893/. Accessed 30 Sept. 2024.

Mark, Joshua J. "Gertrude Bell." World History Encyclopedia, 16 Aug. 2021, www.worldhistory.org/Gertrude‗Bell/. Accessed 30 Sept. 2024.