Gertrude Margaret Lowthian Bell

1868-1926

    Gertrude Margaret Lowthian Bell was born on July 14, 1868 in Washington Hall, Durham County, England. Her father was Sir Hugh Bell, second baronet. Her education began with home schooling, and then at age sixteen she attended Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford University. She was the first woman to obtain first-class honors there in 1887 in the School of Modern History. Gertrude Bell was a rarity as it was said that she was able to obtain an education that equaled a man's.

    Bell did a lot of traveling throughout  Europe and visited Persia (now Iran). She eventually made two trips around the world, in 1897-1898 and 1902-1903. She was an avid mountain climber and her fearless climbing expeditions in the Alps earned  her recognition as an expert Alpinist. During her travels, she fell in love with the Arab people. She learned to speak the Arabic language and she investigated Arab archaeological sites. Gertrude Bell had several nicknames. The Arabs called her a "Daughter of the desert" and she was renowned as the "Uncrowned Queen of Iraq."

    Her acquired knowledge of the region and her ability to speak Arabic, Turkish and Persian led her into service with the British Intelligence during World War I where she served under Sir Percy Cox and Sir Arnold Wilson. In 1915, she was appointed to the Arab Bureau in Cairo, whose goal was to gather information for mobilization of Arabs against Turkey. In 1915 she was hired by British military intelligence, the first woman to ever do so. She was called Major Miss Bell. She was summoned in the spring of 1919 to the Paris Conference to give her advice on Arab affairs.

    Bell was part of the Mesopotamia Expeditionary Force in Basra and Baghdad. In 1920, she became Oriental Secretary to the British High Commission in Iraq. When Winston Churchill was made Colonial Secretary in 1921, he summoned the greatest experts on the Middle East to a conference in Egypt to determine the future of Mesopotamia. This conference included Gertrude Bell and 39 men.

    In 1921 she was the main force in the establishment of the Hashimite dynasty ruler Faysal I, the first king on the throne of Iraq. Hence, the reason Bell was called the "king maker". In the same year, she published Review of the Civil Administration in Mesopotamia. Between 1923 and 1926 she founded an archaeological museum in Baghdad and became Iraq's Director of Antiquities. In his article for The Atlantic, Christopher Hitchins called Bell, "The Woman Who Made Iraq". Bell had decided to live permanently in Baghdad and continued her activities, which not only  included founding the Iraq National Museum, but helping to organize elections and the writing of the constitution. Gertrude Bell was awarded the Founder's Medal in 1918, an honor rarely given to women. She was also awarded the decoration C.B.E. for her political service.

    Between 1900 and 1918, almost 7000 photographs were taken of Bell with many Middle Eastern archaeological sites in the pictures. These photographs are very important as they are evidence of structures that have since disappeared or been damaged. She left money to fund the British Institute of Archaeology in Iraq. A year after her death, Letters of Gertrude Bell, a two-volume set, was published by her stepmother in 1927. There are approximately 1,600 letters and 16 journals detailing her travels, in the Gertrude Bell papers, along with various other items. Recently Bells letters have been circulating around the Pentagon as U.S. and British officials find her insights into the people and the land of Iraq very helpful and illuminating.

    At the beginning of the 20th century, Gertrude Margaret Lowthian Bell was the most powerful woman in the world. She was an advisor to Winston Churchill and in agreement with T. E. Lawrence, also known as Lawrence of Arabia, in the belief that the area now known as Iraq should be made into an Arab kingdom and backed by Britain. She single handedly mapped Iraq during her six crossings of the area during twelve years. Bell died July 12, 1926, in Baghdad, Iraq, where she is buried.

References:

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

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200706/woman-iraq

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

Former link, http://www.biography.com/cgi-bin/biomain.cgi, (2006)

Smithsonian, http://www.smithsonianmag.si.edu/smithsonian/issues98/apr98/bell.html, (2006)

Former link, http://www.britannica.com/seo/g/gertrude-bell/, (2006)

Newcastle University Library, Former link, http://www.ncl.ac.uk/library/specialcollections/exhibition_bell_1.php, (2006)

Former link, http://www.netsrq.com/~dbois/bell.html, (2006)

Former link, http://www.gerty.ncl.ac.uk/home/index.htm, (2006)

Written By:Joel R. Siebring, 2001

Edited by: Lillian Dolentz, 2009