Lawrence of Arabia and the Queen of the Desert

If there ever was a female match for the likes of the celebrated British soldier T.E. Lawrence, aka Lawrence of Arabia (1888-1935), it was Gertrude Margaret Lowthian Bell (1868-1926). Bell was raised in the privileged world of Victorian England and the first woman to win a first class degree in Modern History at Oxford. She did this before she was twenty-one. She traveled extensively and was an avid mountain climber, scaling the formidable Matterhorn at one time, but it was her love of the Middle East that brought her extraordinary fame. She learned the Arabic language in Jerusalem in 1899 and 1900, a communication skill she used to investigate Arab archaeological sites. She wrote detailed reports of her travels that Lawrence used in his campaigns against the Turks.

She met Lawrence when he was on a Hittite dig. At first critical of the methods she saw Lawrence and his companions use, she was eventually tutored in various details that included Assyrian architecture, Mesopotamian ethnology, and other subjects pertaining to their scientific investigation of the site, many of these lessons coming from Lawrence himself. Though she was twenty years his senior, both became friends and companions in various political pursuits dealing with the Middle East. Lawrence wrote of their meeting at the site, "She is pleasant . . . not beautiful except with a veil on, perhaps."[i]

She joined the British intelligence division of the Arab Bureau in Cairo in November 1915 when she was recruited by the British naval intelligence head Captain Reginald "Blinker" Hall. Bell was the only woman to be honored with the position of political officer in World War I. Among her many other titles and accomplishments, she was selected by Winston Churchill as one of 40 British representatives and Middle East experts at the 1921 Cairo Conference. She was the only woman in the group that included her friend T.E. Lawrence. A picture of Churchill, Bell, and Lawrence sitting side by side on camels with the pyramids in the background was taken during this conference.

She was part of the Paris Peace Conference that brought together some of the greatest leaders in the world from January to July 1919. She rubbed shoulders with President Woodrow Wilson; Prime Minister, Winston Churchill; and John Maynard Keynes. Even Ho Chi Minh, the future leader of the Viet Cong, who was a kitchen assistant at the Paris Ritz Hotel, became part of the historic effort to create a world peace when he submitted a petition to the conference for the independence of Vietnam.

She was able to appreciate the complexity of Lawrence's character. In letters she wrote to him, she called him an angel in one and a man possessed by the devil. During the week long debate at the Cairo conference, Lawrence had been on his best behavior but as Bell biographer Jane Wallach wrote he, ". . . began to revert to his old ways. When, becoming obstreperous, he made an impudent remark; no one knew what to say. Finally, Gertrude shot back at him a look with her piercing eyes, 'You little imp!' she jeered." Lawrence turned red with embarrassment and "rarely if ever taken aback, retreated in silence."[ii] Along with winning the respect of many through her accomplishments, she had established a reputation as intense, arrogant, and difficult and hardly a voice for women's rights. She pitied men who had to marry "such fools" as women. Besides Lawrence, she found friendship with St. John "Jack" Philby, father of the notorious turncoat spy Kim.[iii] She wrote her father that Philby "is not an enemy. In spite of his ability, he suffers from an incurable confidence in his own opinions, which leads him so wildly astray at times that he is not then difficult to tackle. Personally I like him very much."[iv]

On March 8, 1920 the Arab Grand Committee at Damascus proclaimed Feisal King of Syria, a position that lasted until July 27, 1920 when the French deposed him. In March of 1921 in Cairo, Churchill, acting as colonial secretary, agreed to make Feisal king of an area that would eventually become Iraq in 1927, a decision that was influenced greatly by Bell and Lawrence's suggestion. Gertrude Bell acted as a friend and confidant to Feisal. She helped design Feisal's Iraqi flag and worked closely with him during his coronation. She was known by many Iraqis as "the maker of kings."

Bell went on to write seven books and numerous articles on travel and history. Between 1923 and 1926, she established an archaeological museum in Baghdad and became Iraq's Director of Antiquities. She left 50,000 pounds in her will to the museum. Like Lawrence she never married and facing ill health in 1926 took an overdose of sleeping pills to end her life at age 57. Her talent, determination, and the respect she had won from many friends and colleagues throughout her remarkable life weren't enough to keep her going. In one of her last letters she wrote, "It is too lonely my existence here. One can't go on forever living alone, at least I don't feel I can." She was buried in Baghdad. Her funeral was attended by hundreds of Iraqis.

Sources:

MacMillan, Margaret. Paris 1919 - Six Months That Changed the World, Random House, New York, 2002.

Wallach, Jane. Desert Queen-The Extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell, Anchor, New York, 1991.

http://www.theava.com/04/0526-gertrude-bell.html

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5552563

End Notes:

[i] Wallach, Jane. Desert Queen, Anchor, New York, 1991, p. 94.

[ii] Ibid., p. 299.

[iii] MacMillan, Margaret. Paris 1919 - Six Months That Changed the World, Random House, New York, 2002, p. 399.

[iv] Letter to father http://www.gerty.ncl.ac.uk/letters/l1530.htm, November 2, 1922.