Professor David Peimer
Gertrude Bell: Radical Influencer of British Imperial Middle Eastern Policy

Professor David Peimer | Gertrude Bell: Radical Influencer of British Imperial Middle Eastern Policy

- And we’re going to dive straight into looking at a quite remarkable lady who obviously though she lived 1868-1926, and a remarkable life and pretty unique certainly for her times. And we have to see it in the context of her times, obviously, and what she achieved, what she did, how seriously she was really taken by imperial power brokers of the times, some of her relationship or friendship rather, and political connection to Churchill, to young Churchill, Lawrence of Arabia, and a whole host of other colonial leaders, colonial administrators, generals, and others in the Middle East area, Gertrude Bell. The fantastic German film director, Werner Herzog, made a movie of her life in 2015 with Nicole Kidman playing her. And we all know Herzog, “Aguirre, Wrath of God,” “Fitzcarraldo,” and others. You know, the sort of European, Herzog, one of his main themes, the white European who goes out to Africa, south America, the Middle East, wherever, into inverted commas, “The dark primal, primitive worlds” of the conquered colonies, and then comes back. And how it then challenges their identity, then comes back to Europe. So, and it’s a massive, as Herzog shows, but as in her life, massive, fundamentally an adventure story, but with a difference. It’s real, and it’s based on real lives. Like David Lean’s, “Lawrence of Arabia” we looked at last week, in terms of a real person going out and then a fictional film made, based on her biography, or Lawrence of Arabia’s biography. So this is about Gertrude Bell, and I’m not sure many people will know that much of her life, pardon me, unless one is perhaps from England.

But, again, remarkable, and the achievements, the ambition, the drive, the adventures that she in a way lived and that she symbolises for me a particular kind of imperialist going out into the world and doing what imperialists do, which is find ways to understand cultures, conquer cultures, rule them, understand the nuance of religion, culture, nationalism, their own history of the culture they’re going to, and the exotic adventure that they of course all have. Lawrence of Arabia being probably the most well known example from the British in terms of this period, and the Middle East specifically. This is a picture of her, obviously in front of the Sphinx on camels. There’s Churchill on the left. There’s Gertrude Bell in the middle, and that’s Lawrence of Arabia with the hat, the tie, and the suit, with a little handkerchief in his suit pocket. That’s the three of them there that we can see. Very different image of Lawrence, of course, and Gertrude Bell, and of course the younger Churchill. So just to give you an idea of the connections of the, the rest of them are generals and other officials or administrators of Empire for the Middle East, in this case, at this period was in obviously Egypt. Okay, this gives a context to where she is, what she’s doing, and the period that we’re talking about. If we can go on to the next slide, please. This is Gertrude Bell. On the right hand side is a picture of her as an eight year old with her father. And we’re going to come onto to a little bit of her family life in a moment. And of course, this other picture is, this is how she would’ve gone out, and she did. It’s a real picture taken with her at the time, Arab Guide, once she goes into what was obviously known at the times as Mesopotamia. With her tent, and she would take many, many suitcases with her and even a bath so she could have a bath in the desert.

How she lived, she was enthralled by, she was seduced by, she was completely exotically entranced with the Middle East and what was known at the time, not only as Mesopotamia, but Arabia. Okay, I want to go into a little bit about her life. That’s of course a picture with her father. And there she is at the age of eight. She’s a writer, she’s a traveller, she’s a political officer. She is a political advisor to some of the Arab leaders of the times, as well as to the British colonial administrators, and to the war office back in London and the Colonial office. Adventure, and determination, and a love of archaeology, which is similar to how Lawrence went out. A lot of them came from having studied history at one of the universities, Oxford, Cambridge, wherever, in England. And they would go out, and through archaeology would enter into the culture, the language, the exotic adventure of being an imperial spirit of the times, really. An explorer, similar to Lawrence she went out to map the Middle East and ends up wanting to change the imperial ruled map of the Middle East. She became highly influential in terms of British imperial policy making. She was an Arabist, similar to Lawrence, but in a way, almost got more into it than Lawrence, and stayed inside being an Arabist. Learned the language, similar to Lawrence through the archaeology, the history, the culture, mixed endlessly trying to do everything possible to understand Arab culture from within, and how to help the British rule what was known, of course, as the vast expenses of Arabia, of the times. Her knowledge, her contacts, her network she set up, were amongst the most advanced of any British coloniser who went out into the Middle East of this period, even more than Lawrence.

Lawrence was there, really, as I guess we’d call a military intelligence officer and caught between the two. But he wasn’t there for as many years. And then goes back to England and writes, “Seven Pillars of Wisdom,” et cetera. She lives there. She leaves university, basically goes to Arabia and lives most of her life there, except for when she’s travelling. She’s highly esteemed as well by the British officials, the high commissioner of Mesopotamia, a guy called Percy Cox and many others. She is regarded as one of the most intelligent, fiercely independent minds. And you can see, she’s going to dress like she’s dressing in England in the boiling heat of Arabia as you can see in the picture. She’s going to have her tent, she’s going to have a bath there, water brought to her. I mean, we’ve got to remember this is like, the end of the 19th century, beginning of the 20th, that she’s doing all this. You know, where’s electricity? Where’s the, everything we can imagine. But with all the suitcases that are going to help her to have a certain degree of comfort, shall we say? So she’s highly esteemed, the attends the 1919 Paris Conference after the First World War, where fundamentally, the victors, the allies France, Britain, and the others are basically divvying up the spoils of war and which countries, which cultures are going to rule, who’s going to take which. We discussed Lawrence of Arabia, Syria, of course, and Lebanon go to the French, what was then Palestine, obviously Israel goes to the British. Egypt goes to British, and all the rest of it.

She is fundamental to the creation of Iraq, the support of Jordan, as was Lawrence of Arabia, and what was called Transjordan at the time. Or of course, British mandates or British ruled territories. Iraq, called Mesopotamia, of course, at the time, by the British. Fundamentally what it is, is a divvying up of the spoils of having essentially destroying the Ottoman Empire and the Turks through, which we’ll look at next week, Churchill and the Gallipoli. But they fundamentally took on, because the Turks were supporting the Germans in the war, the first world war. So the aim, of course, destroy the Ottoman Empire and then divide the spoils of war amongst the victors as victors do in war and the colonisers do. What’s interesting about her, so let’s call it the partition of the ex-Ottoman Empire. She’s part of the Paris Conference after the war, the Cairo Conference, 1921. She’s crucial and pretty much the only woman to do it, which is really important. And she’s crucial to informing policy and final decisions made by these empire administrators. The fundamental questions of empire is what I want to explore in terms of her life, which is, okay, you go out and you conquer, but then what do you do with the territory you’ve conquered? You know, I always felt that where the British Empire was so influenced by the Romans and intelligently, for the Romans, fundamentally, I’m being very minimalist and very, I’m simplifying it, it was to get taxes, get money, get rich back at home in Rome, get rich back at home in Britain, and cheap labour or slaves even in Roman times.

And thirdly, just take the resources. In South Africa, of course, it was gold and diamonds later, and in these Arab countries, of course it was oil, it was fundamental, and other things, and controlling trade routes. And where I think the British cleverly did it, similar to the Romans to a degree, was through trade. Fundamental impetus through trade. And as Gertrude had the great trilogy of human society and human history, Gertrude’s great phrase of the trilogy was trade, piracy, and war, were the three fundamentals of any society, going out. And why conquer another? You need war, of course, you need trade, got to get rich back at home, no point otherwise in conquering. And thirdly, you need piracy, and not just, “Pirates of Penzance” or, “Pirates of the Caribbean” sort of roaming the seas in their ship with one little, skull and bones, but piracy as a fundamental unspoken, shall we call it, unspoken doctrine. Basically, I can take what I want because I have the power of the ships and the canons, and self-belief that I’m the superior civilization. That together with David Livingston’s three Cs of British imperialism to colonise, to Christianize, and civilise the primitives. The three great Cs that Livingston summed it up, Kipling and others, all these leaders, these thinkers, and how they phrased it and framed it, and you got to feel, you have a superior way of living is more civilised in order to justify to oneself. Of course, one can colonise and rule. Then comes the question of, okay, now I’ve got the reason, the ideology for doing it. Then comes the question of, well, what am I going to do once I’ve conquered the land, I’ve conquered the peoples?

Oh, I’m going to take the resources, get rich back at home, going to have cheap labour, slavery in ancient Roman times and others. And of course then comes the question, well, do I give them autonomy? You know, in this case of the Middle East, these conquered Arab tribes, do I give them autonomy, semi-autonomy? Should I have a much more direct rule coming from London? Should I have a hands off rule? What do I do about their religion? What do I do if there’s an emergent nationalism from the conquered groups or tribes? What do we do with all these questions that start to come in, which involve, how do you then administrate a colonised land or set of lands? And those are the fascinating parts that I think fascinated her, and Lawrence, and many others. It’s sort of easier almost to conquer. But then once you’ve conquered, what do you deal with all that? How do you control the conquered masses? Of course, nationalism, there may be, there may be religious differences, cultural differences, food, geography, everything’s got to come in. And you’ve got to be very subtle, nuanced, and smart in all your different ways. Because once the army’s done its job, well, how are you going to rule, you know? And we look at some of the differences between what was called the India approach to colonisation and the Cairo approach, if you like, two different schools, and what she advocated in terms of this difference once you do rule a foreign land.

So that’s what intrigues me about empire for today, in terms of her, and Lawrence, and even Churchill when we look partly at Gallipoli. So she was doing all of this. She believed, Gertrude Bell believed in the momentum of Arab nationalism. She believed fundamentally that there was something to be gained by understanding that once you had lit the fuse of Arab nationalism or of any culture you conquered, you couldn’t put it out and it would become an unstoppable momentum. Let’s remember that Lawrence of Arabia was sent out by Alan B and the others to stir up the Arab tribes against the Ottomans, against the Turkish, to stop them supporting as much as possible the Germans during the First World War. So, but to do that, he had to stir up Arab nationalism, which of course later becomes linked to Islam naturally. And here as an arabist, she believes fundamentally that once you begin, you need Arab nationalism because you get the bigger picture of trying to stop the ottoman, the Turks. But what do you do when it gets a little bigger? What do you do when it’s combined with religion? Lethal combination, nationalism and Islam, lethal. And she understood all these subtle nuances, and then how do you rule it nevertheless? Her approach was that Britain should ally itself with the Arab nationalists, similar to Lawrence of Arabia, but wasn’t always agreed to by the generals or the politicians in London, and different to the Viceroy of India and other conquered territories as well.

This is part of the debate that’s been since ancient, I keep going back to it but Roman times, Greek times, how much do you have a hands on, hands off policy basically, when you rule? With Lawrence, she advocated for a certain degree of independence of Arab states in the Middle East, after of course, the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, after the first World War. She supported the installation of the Hashemite monarchies as Lawrence did, in Jordan and Iraq, what became Jordan and Iraq fundamentally. Put a monarch in, and then hopefully they can hold religion down to a degree, Islam, and rule through direct influence through the Monarch and the Arab aristocracy, which she helped to create and support, of course, take the oil, take the free labour, back home. So she was raised in this way, that was her fundamental thought compared to the other school, which was more in India, more direct rule, where you use the army, you use the military force to enforce literally your power over the conquered peoples. You know, again, hands-on or hands-off approach. Okay, I want to show, the next one is a short clip, which just tells us a little about Gertrude Bell’s origins. Can you show it, please?

• [Narrator] She was known as the Queen of the desert, a global adventurer, linguist, spy, writer, and archaeologist who traded the debutante life in the UK for the deserts of the Middle East. In fact, Gertrude Bell photographed here between Churchill and Lawrence of Arabia, became such a significant figure that she was called as an advisor to British and Arab politicians. She was responsible for defining the borders of modern day Iraq.

• Gertrude Bell was a woman in a man’s, then you call it a man’s world, yet she was more important than all of them.

• [Narrator] Hers was quite a journey from the comfort of the family home in Redcar. It was here she developed a love of fine buildings and treasures, which would ultimately inspire her to found Iraq’s first museum. However, that home is now ram-shackled and broken, and those who know what a contribution she made to preserving foreign treasures, want this place preserved in her memory.

• Thank you, if we can go to the next slide, please. This is a picture of her. It’s an unclear photo, I know, but given the times it was taken, of course, it’s her, obviously in the desert, surrounded by leaders, I guess we’d call them chiefs today of various Arab tribes, pardon me, of what became Iraq of the Kurds, all the different groups of these areas. We go on to the next slide, please. So this is a guy, John Philby who she befriended for a while, and similar to Lawrence of Arabia, but he certainly didn’t have the iconic status of Lawrence, and he certainly didn’t have the sensationalism of the journalists that I mentioned last time. The American journalists who really helped make Lawrence’s career, if you like, and the iconic impetus, impact. Also, John Philby was a lesser official, but I want you to show this picture because he’s a friend of hers. She’s friendly with all of them, that’s where she comes from, by the way, that northeast town with England, but spends most of her life here in Mesopotamia of the times, Arabia. But to show another colonial officer dressed in Arab gear, same as Lawrence, the headgear, the flowing robes, et cetera. We can’t forget for a second, just from these couple of characters, the exotic sense of adventure, and danger, and violence, and excitement, and thrill compared to the England of their upbringing. These are upper class, wealthy families that most of them are coming from, or at least connected upper class families, and highly educated as well, in history, or archaeology, or the literature, whatever.

And they’re going out into the world to do all the things I mentioned. Conquer, rule, debate how to rule what to rule. But they’re also writing of their travels. They want the thrill of adventure and excitement of it. And why not? As Churchill once said, “Well, an Englishman has the right to go anywhere in the world and live and walk anywhere.” You know, it’s that empire spirit, that empire ethos. And I don’t want to be heavily critical because colonisation and empires are as much part of the reality of human history as we all are. It’s a separate debate whether we think the empire is viciously cruel, or whether we think it’s relatively benign, whether it’s the British, or the Roman, or the Greek, or whatever empire, that’s a separate issue. But looking at her life and looking at why these people did what they did from their point of view. If we look at it from the conquered point of view, totally different story, obviously. But that would be for another time in terms of looking at empire, where we look at post-colonial ideas and the reaction, and the fight, and the struggles to throw off the shackles and the claws of empire. But to show why they were doing, what they were even putting on their clothes, everything. Their sense of shifting identities and confusion. If we imagine just being brought up in that way of Eaton, or Harrow, or Gertrude Bell dressing, everything they’re accustomed to, they’re learning, they study, and then they’re out into these exotic, adventurous, dangerous worlds and how exciting it is for them. As much as it’s intellectually simulating for them as well.

Okay, if we go onto the next slide, please. This is Bell with Ibn Saud in Basra, which as we know of course is in Iraq. And there’s one of the British generals in the middle. And there’s Ibn Saud and there she is, Gertrude Bell. I mean, you couldn’t get a more colonial image of the woman from middle of England coming from her family, going out there, highly educated. But this is how she’s dressing in the middle of the desert, and the fierce independence and the fierce determination to have an impact and to live a life, a more exciting life, perhaps, you know? But again, these pictures, I love the costume. You could almost set it as a film or a play. You know, you’ve got the three costumes set up there already, 1916 Basra in the middle of the first World War period, as we know. So she was obviously raised privileged. She goes to university, she studies history and archaeology like Lawrence and others. Through travels she meets so many. She’s a mountain climber, she’s an equestrian. She loves riding horses. She loves climbing mountains in Switzerland, in the Alps, she goes later. And she absolutely, whether we call it, is infatuated with, seduced by, adores the Middle East and Arabist world and culture. She visits what was then, well, what becomes known as Iran or Persia, the Syria Palestine area, the Greater Syria as it was called from the Roman phrase, Palestina, which was the Roman word for the area. The Mesopotamia, Arabia, all over. And of course, as I mentioned, she then joins the Arab Bureau in Cairo, which is where the British are fundamentally formulating policy and ruling the Middle East from, the main centre point obviously being Egypt. And she meets all, and she becomes in 1917. So the first World War was not finished. She becomes the Oriental Secretary to three British high commissioners of the times. So these guys are really the rulers of huge parts of the Middle East.

And she’s their oriental secretary. I mean, that’s a massive post. And let’s never forget this the early 1900s, and for a woman to become this, remarkable achievement, and to be taken so seriously… She writes endless letters, she writes endless policy documents. She’s reading, she writes books, she’s meeting them. She’s as accomplished, if not, and far more than many of the others in her understanding of the Middle East in terms of the colonial debates and Arabic culture. She can speak, she learns to speak Arabic language and certain dialects, and Italian, and German. She could speak some French as well. You know, brilliantly intelligent, fiercely independent person for a woman of her times, especially. She gets high ranking roles. She spends most of the rest of her life in Baghdad. She’s a key player in nation building, especially what becomes the kingdom of Iraq. Under her influence, it becomes a kingdom. Fundamentally, they try to push nationalism and hold religion back and Islam back. And they’re trying to rule through being friends with the king and the aristocracies they create of the new Iraq. And of course, get oil back at home, get it sent. She’s an ally of the new King, Faisal. And towards the end of her life though, he sidelines her from Iraqi politics. And Faisal then appoints her, director of antiquities in Iraq ‘cause she’s determined to collect all the archaeological discoveries. She sets up a library in Baghdad.

She’s the president of the first library in Baghdad, I mean, she’s never stopped doing things like Lawrence and like many, but Lawrence is only there for a much shorter time, and others. What intrigued is that she doesn’t come just as a military general, or as a bureaucrat, or a civil servant from London only. She is this in between, like Lawrence. She’s highly educated, highly intelligent scholar who wants to get to know these exotic, adventurous cultures. In her terms, exotic and adventurous, also have a big influence on British rule and understandings of how you rule as the empire, as opposed to just obviously the military or obviously the civil servant in London. And that’s a fascinating area, and that’s what I think Herzog tries to capture in his film as well, something of that. She’s the president of the Baghdad Library. She the library, she founds, she’s the director of antiquities, archaeological digs, not only in Baghdad, but the whole of Mesopotamia. She founds the Iraq museum. I mean, this is an extraordinary set of achievements for one human being. Nevermind a woman who’s facing the odds because she’s up with all the men that are obviously, got their attitudes, we can imagine, the early 1900s towards her. 1926, she died. It’s possibly a suicide, possibly not. No one could be 100% sure, there’s no suicide note. She took an overdose.

She had been pretty depressed and upset that she seemed to have been sidelined by 1926, by both the British and the Arab rulers of those times. So she’s really no longer influential or so connected by the mid 1920s, it’s an apparent suicide. Also, she translated books of poetry written in Persian into English. She published her own books, go on, and on, and on. She was one of the first two women to go to Oxford University to study history, because history was one of the subjects then that that university would allow women to study in these days. But they were not awarded degrees. Woman could study, but not get the degree, had to be a fight. And finally, it was not until 1920 that Oxford University treated women equally with men. She never married, she never had children. She befriended colonial administrators, all different ones. She had different brief passionate affairs, married or not married, she had affairs with a whole bunch of them, a guy called Swettenham and others. Another one, which was apparently unconsummated, we don’t know, Major Charles Doughty-Wylie. You know, there were majors, there might have even been generals, there were administrators and others, you know? That was her personal, romantic life. Her uncle was the British ambassador at Tehran, just to show you how networked and connected she is of this generation of leaders of empire at the times. She called Persia Paradise. She wrote all these books, as I said, she could speak Arabic, French, German, Italian, and she even learned Turkish.

In greater Syria in the early 1900s, she met the infamous Mark Sykes, who I mentioned last week, devised the Sykes-Picot Agreement. He was a civil servant at the British Imperial Foreign Office. And of the Sykes-Picot Agreement, which out flanked Lawrence of Arabia, where Sykes from Britain as the bureaucrat, and Picot from France, they had an agreement that once they’d won the war, the first World War, and beaten the Germans, and Austria, Hungarian Empire, et cetera, they would divvy up the spoils, of course. And France could have the greater Syria, Lebanon, and all the rest of it. And the British would have Egypt, it was then of course, Palestine, Mesopotamia, and other areas. And that Sykes-Picot Agreement was the source of the downfall and the bitterness, and the sense of betrayal that Lawrence of Arabia had. And he claimed he didn’t know, and that he only discovered later when he’d already whipped up the Arab tribes to take on the Turks and defeat them. And they later discovered this deal made, which David Lean, which I showed last week. That scene brilliantly in the film. You know, thanks very much, Lawrence.

Off you go back to England, you’ve done your job, and you can have a first class cabin 'cause we’ll make you a colonel. But she’s friendly with all these levels of bureaucrats who have extraordinary power in determining colonial boundaries. She wrote a book in the Middle East called, “Syria: The Desert and The Sown,” and other books as well. 1909 finds her very friendly in Mesopotamia with Lawrence. They both travel extensively in Arabia together. She’s elected a fellow of the Geographic society of London in 1913. I mean, just look at the list of achievements. And then with the war, the British War Office asked Gertrude Bell for her assessment of the situation, Ottoman Syria, Ottoman Mesopotamia, and Arabia in general. That includes what today would be known as Iran, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, all of that. They ask Lawrence, they ask her, and others, but the two most well known are these two. Then she’s a supporter of that guy Philby, who I showed a little while ago. And he wanted a republic for Iraq more, pushing the independence approach to rule in colonial times. And to have this Ibn Saud, this one here you see as the king of Saudi Arabia, what would become Ibn Saud king become of Saudi Arabia. And it’s pushed by that guy John Philby, and she does as well, together with some others. The Arab Bureau in Cairo is very important to colonial rule.

The tribes of a whole, the Gulf area, all of these areas are coming together to negotiate something with the British. Some of them join them, some of them left, all the dilemmas and questions of empire rule that I mentioned at the beginning. How much hands-on, how much hands-off, fundamentally. What do you do about religion? What do you do about the military? What you do about daily life ruling, or hands-off. In 1916, what’s fascinating is that Gertrude Bell was sent to India, let’s remember 1916, completely under British rule, the Viceroy. And her task was to try and coordinate better communication between the Arab Bureau in Cairo ruling the whole of the Middle East, and the government of India under the Viceroy. So she’s the one sent to improve communication between two hugely vital parts of the British Empire, if not the most vital parts. The one is oil, and the other is the jewel of Empire, India. She wrote, and I’m quoting, “There was no touch between us before, except bad tempered, badly written telegrams.” A lovely play of words and language she had, like Lawrence almost in a way. “The Viceroy of India at the time was sceptical of the Arab Bureau’s promises of independent Arab states.” That debate, I mentioned right at the beginning, a guy called Lord Harding. And his question was, “Well, how do you keep religions quiet? How do you keep Muslims in, and Hindu, how do you keep them quiet in India? Nevermind the whole of Arabia,” you know? So religion and nationalism. His approach in India was to be much more hands-on, let the military rule the empire possessions, the colonies.

Her approach, Lawrence and others was to give a certain degree of autonomy to these emerging, newly created Arab states. It’s an endless debate. You could read the same in Marcus Aurelius in Caesar, it goes all the way back, and the Greeks as well. So she differed of course, and had serious differences of opinion here. And you can imagine the debates going on amongst the characters of these times. She became the only political officer who was a woman in the entire British forces in 1916. So she’s political officer to the British Army, to the British empire rulers, reporting to London, to the Arab Bureau and Cairo, and the Viceroy in India. An extraordinary set of connections that she is responsible for. Here we see, this is a picture, this is from 1916. And here this picture was taken when they were trying to get Ibn Saud’s support against the Ottomans, of course, against the Turks in terms of the First World War. By promising a certain degree of autonomy for a new national state of Iraq and others. How do you keep the people content, at least in being ruled? Back to the old question. In Paris at 1919, the Paris Conference, she’s fundamental. She goes there together with all the others, as I said, divvy up the spoils of colonial possessions after the first World War. So dismantle the whole Ottoman Empire and which territories, who are you going to get? We mentioned the Sykes-Picot Agreement. The whole of the greater Syria will go to the French, and Lebanon and elsewhere, and which will go to the British et cetera.

And Gertrude Bell wanted more independence, more self-determination for the whole of what is called Mesopotamia. What became Saudi Arabia and Persia under the British rule, but less direct, more indirect. She was convinced it would follow. 1919 comes an Egyptian revolution against the British. And they were anxious that that spirit of nationalism would spread from Egypt in 1919 to the rest of these newly created Arab states unless they got more self-determination. Of course, give an inch, they went a hand, we can go on and on. So, how far do you go? She’s the oriental secretary and she’s the liaison with incoming Arab governments and the ones of before. Okay, can we show the next one please? This is a clip from another documentary about it.

• [Vita] I prefer the East to the West. It’s sights and its sounds. In the desert, every newcomer is an enemy till you know him to be a friend.

• [Interviewee] We believe she’s a British spy. Her travels should be prevented.

• [Narrator] She knows more about the Arabs and Arabia than almost any other living Englishman or woman.

• [Vita] We rushed into this business with our usual disregard for a comprehensive political scheme. The truth is that I’m in a minority of one in the Mesopotamian political service, yet I’m so sure I’m right that I would go to the stake for it. Oil is the trouble, of course, detestable stuff.

• One could not say that she was popular outside the small circle of highly placed people in which she moved.

• Not very like a woman, you know?

• Do you know what I really want is a wife to look after my household and my clothes. I quite understand why men out here marry anyone who turns up. The Arab prince and the English woman who were trying to build up a new Mesopotamia between them. You may rely on this, I’ll never engage in making kings again. It’s too great a strain.

• I have never waved in my belief that she came to her end by her own deliberate act.

• [Vita] Don’t tell anyone that the me they knew will not come back in the me that returns. Perhaps they will not find out.

• If we can hold it there, please. So this is, “Letters to Baghdad,” which is based on her letters. And of course the actress, Vita Sackville-West is reading from her letters. We get the exotic, the dangerous, but the politically astute mind, she’s convinced, you have to give nationalism. What do you do once you conquer? It’s easier to conquer, harder to then rule afterwards, rule in one’s own interest, so that, you’ve got to give the ruled a certain amount. But you want the majority of the fruits or the spoils of ruling coming back to the home territory. The endless conflict in colonisation. So she’s so aware of it. And it’s that, what do you do once you have the power? And that’s where I think her real contribution in terms of political history really lies. This is based on the one piece, fantastic thing of, “Letters to Baghdad” based on her letters. She, as I said, she worked with Churchill, she was an advisor to Churchill. And after the first World War, Churchill wanted to cut the costs of the empire because the empire was seriously in debt after the war. And Churchill was the Secretary of State for war and air. And he wanted to seriously reduce the expenses, the costs going out to maintain empire, including the cost of course, of quashing revolts and more important, revolutions against them. So the British in a way realised that the policy of direct governance, more hands-on was highly expensive. You risk more if you’re not governing hands-on with military force. But to rule with military force is more expensive than not often. So the hands-off policy is actually a bit cheaper in terms of pure balancing the budgets. And it was even noted by Churchill that the revolt of 1920, the Egypt revolts were successful. They were successful in suppressing it, the British, but it cost them 50 million pounds in those days, just suppressing that one revolt.

So Iraq would be cheaper as a self-governing state. So she brought in the financial argument, which younger Churchill and others literally bought into. So the financial aspect comes in as well, which I haven’t even mentioned yet, but it’s important. She and Lawrence of Arabia are regarded as the Orientalists. Churchill himself convened a conference, the Cairo conference I mentioned, which Churchill is convening 'cause he’s secretary of the state for for war and air, to determine the boundaries of all the British mandates in the Middle East. And the partitioning, fundamentally the post first World War partitioning of the Ottoman Empire. And they gave France what they, we spoke about all that and the other allies as well. So it in the end became two schools of thought. The India School, which became none of the India school, which was direct military rule, much more. And the Cairo schools from the Cairo conference, which was more indirect, hands-off rule of the colonised people, you know? And that’s a debate going on today, many parts of the globe. And it goes way back to the ancient Greeks and before that. And they set up the new kings, the new king of Jordan just created Abdulah, the new king of Iraq, Faisal and others. And even in Saudi Arabia where all these countries came out of it. And we see glimpses in the films and these documentaries.

Of course, like many of the other British, she’s romantic, the deserts of Arabia, the history, the coalition of disparate tribes. If we imagine ourselves as one of the colonisers of the times, we can imagine being enthralled, perhaps being caught up in our own times. There’s a spirit of adventure and danger, which is exciting. And of course, the question ultimately as Churchill knew and others only too well, what to do with the oil? Oil rich Mosul, Iraq, what becomes Saudi Arabia, Iran, and others. So Churchill and Lawrence of Arabia, they feared even they’re putting the Kurds under an Arab ruler might make them a bit more sympathetic to Turkey and disloyal to the Iraqi Arabs. You know, all these nuances one had to take into account 'cause you want the oil, that’s without a doubt, but you’ve got to be aware they’re all different religious, tribal, and ethnic groups there. 1922 finally was to allow for the inclusion of Mosul as part of Iraq and other Kurdish areas. Okay, if we go on to the next one, please. This is another documentary about her life.

• Woman from Teesside helped shape a nation. She had a lot of equipment to take with her, not just her tent and her tea set, in order to take her bath in the desert, but also…

• She took a bath in the desert?

• So she wanted to keep clean.

• I’m Chris Jackson and this is, Inside Out. The region has produced many men of influence in the world, but also women. Hollywood star, Nicole Kidman will soon be seen in a new role, portraying a remarkable Victorian woman who swapped her native northeast for life in the Middle East. Newcastle University, professor Helen Berry charts the life and times of Gertrude Bell, a woman so powerful, she helped draw up the map that created Iraq.

• [Narrator] The Northeast, powerhouse of the Industrial Revolution. A new era forged from iron. It made one family very rich indeed. And it was into that family nearly 150 years ago that Gertrude Margaret Lowthian Bell was born, right here in this house in Washington County, Durham. Gertrude’s grandfather was the industrialist, Sir Isaac Lowthian Bell. He employed more than 40,000 people across the Northeast. And it was the family’s wealth that enabled this brilliant scholar and intrepid explorer to travel the world. Gertrude Bell was to become a formidable British diplomat, adventurer, and archaeologist. She rubbed shoulders with Winston Churchill and Lawrence of Arabia, a truly remarkable woman in a male dominated world. When Gertrude was very young, maybe just one year old.

• Yeah, if we can hold it here, please.

• Her father, move the whole family here to Redcar.

• If we can freeze, oh, thanks Jess. Okay, I want to go on to a very important area, which is the one really disheartening part of Gertrude Bell’s life. Her understanding or her sense of Jewish people. She was an arabist, as I said, much more of an arabist than Lawrence and many of the others. She was, I suppose to put it mildly, Arab sympathetic. And that she believed that the British must keep the mandate for Palestine to run by themselves rather than make a transe of Jordan. She also opposed the Zionist movement strongly. She wrote, and I’m quoting here, she wrote that she regarded the Balfour declaration. And I’m quoting, “I regard it with the deepest mistrust. It is like a nightmare in which you foresee all the horrible things which are going to happen and can’t prevent.” She goes on, this is a letter to her mother. So it’s really the personal feelings being revealed. She goes on, I’m quoting, “The country,” she means Palestine. “The country is wholly unsuitable for what the Jews have in view. It is a poor land, it’s incapable of development. And with two thirds of its population, Arabs who look on the Jews with contempt. The Balfour declaration is, in my opinion, a holy artificial scheme divorced from all relation to facts. And I wish it the ill success it deserves.” This is Gertrude Bell writing to her mother. So we could not get a more personal revelation. There’s nothing political here. She’s showing her personal prejudice, her personal animosity, and maybe fear or distaste to put it absolutely mildly, her prejudice towards Jewish people.

“And I wish it all the ill success it deserves.” What a phrase, that’s Gertrude Bell. She has, I think, been so taken in by the arabist worldview, by the antisemitic worldview. That’s what’s going on in her mind towards Jewish people. And we cannot ignore it for one second. Lawrence is very different. Lawrence is looking for, I guess today we call a two-state solution, whatever. But Lawrence is trying to find some harmonious between the two. Lawrence is much more empathetic or sympathetic at least, towards Jewish history, Jewish culture, and the reason why Churchill, of course is as well, obviously Balfour and many of the others. So Gertrude Bell, and I don’t want to go into the reasons why perhaps, but has a serious antisemitic prejudice. She goes on, she even designed the flag of Iraq, of the times. She designs King Faisal’s personal kingly flag, if you like. This is how close she is to real power of the British Empire and of the Arab rulers who’ve been put in by the Brits. The new Iraqi government, just to give an example, led by the British, off stage if you like, but really leading, had to mediate between the various groups of Iraq at the time, Shias, Sunnis, Kurds, Jewish, Christian. And we go on and on. And that’s just some of the religious groups. Then we have all the ethnic tribal groups as well. We can start to see what’s really going on there. And the ramifications today are all too obvious everywhere. She wrote about how does one create a new national identity in a new country? Happens to be called Iraq, happens to be called Saudi Arabia, whatever, you know? An identity that the majority can identify with.

Well, it has to be around some sense of nationalism, some sense of religion. The two together, we know already how lethal that can be. And if we don’t have a clear separation of powers in different areas in terms of rule. And she has a sense of that age old question, and really is ancient. How do we create an identity of the conquered peoples and that we can still, as the British still rule and still reap the fruits of ruling, otherwise what’s the point of ruling? Okay, then she goes through all these different things I said, the other pretty unpleasant side of her personality was that she was seriously anti the Suffragist movement. She was a founder member of this this organisation called, Women’s National Anti-Suffrage League. Later, she changed her mind or modified her opinion of this to some degree. So this is a highly complex, highly complicated personality. So many connections, so much interest and influence. And yet has fundamental stereotyped or prejudicial attitudes. An ambivalence to put it at best, prejudice, to put it maybe closer to reality. What is the wisdom? But she did ask the questions in her letters, you get it. And her policy writings, what is the wisdom and what is the capacity of the whole British Imperial project? She asks these words, you know? What’s the wisdom of doing it, the capacity for doing it, how in the end? She could get beyond her infatuation with, let’s call it the exotic, dangerous, exhilarating Arab world and history, and culture to ask those questions as well. So she felt they would not, and I’m quoting her from another letter. “The Arabs will not in a day fall into step with European ambitions, nor will they necessarily welcome European methods, nor can they be hastened. Look at our own English history.

The Magna Carter to Imperial Parliament. It was the work of century after century.” That’s from another one of her letters. So she understood history, she understood cultures and all of this going together. That if it took the Brits so long, if it took other European countries so long, well come on, how are you going to do it in a couple of years, a decade or two in the Middle East? So it’s all of these things. We go on to the next slide, please? This is here at the Cairo Conference. I mentioned the Cairo School versus the India School. You know, this is the much more hands-off one and the India one was the direct, hands-on one. Here we see Churchill, there’s Allenby, there’s Bell, and a whole lot of others at the Cairo conference. You can see her in the top left corner of all these. And these are the power brokers who will decide everything of the Middle East. Okay, if we can have the next slide, please. If we can show the next slide, please, Jess. Thank you. This is again, that same picture earlier, but a better one because you see the sphinx and the pyramids in the background, part of the whole alluring, I suppose temptation to explore these places at the times. We go onto the next slide, please. This is Faisal, who becomes the king. And if we remember, the portrayal by Alec Guinness in the David Lean, “Lawrence of Arabia” film, you can see the influence of how he’s trying to dress. He’s trying to carry himself physically as a performer, as a ruler and the actor, trying to portray him as well. Okay, if go on to the next slide, please. This is, again, this is a picture from the Paris Conference after the first World War. Where do we see Gertrude Bell? You can see her right almost in the middle of this one particular picture. But look at all the others around as well, you know? And we get all the different cultures, nationalities, religions, all of them. She’s right there dressed as English woman from the northeast of England.

Okay, we gone to the next slide, please. Now interestingly, Elie Kedourie, fascinating Iraqi guy, Jewish, who argued at the time vehemently, this is after her death of course, 'cause she dies in 1926. But he becomes a British historian. He’s part of the Iraqi Jews kicked out at, you know, Lin Julius and others, I’m sure superbly lectured on as well. Much better knowledge, more knowledgeable than I’m. But he is a fascinating guy who becomes a historian in England after her. And he was an Iraqi Jew whose family had to get out, when they were kicked out, of course, by all this that has been set up at least partly by her. And he saw the whole story of the modernization of the Middle East as one of continuous victimisation, sort of making the Arabs the victim at the hands of the West. He castigated left wing western intellectuals, with what he regarded as a quote, “Naive, romantic view of Islam.” And he was against the British policy of encouragement of Arab nationalism. 'Cause he said, “You’ll not be able to hold back the religious aspect.” He had a negative view of Lawrence, a very negative view of Gertrude Bell as well. Iraq, as we all know, once had a large and flourishing Jewish community, which predates all of this. You know, predates the British, the empire, everything, going way, way back. Kedourie in his own words, “Lawrence was a romantic hero.” And it was absurd to Kedourie to see Lawrence, to see Gertrude Bell, all these English British colonials going to Arabia, being seduced by everything that I mentioned is absurd.

And he called them irresponsible adventurers, who by encouraging Arab nationalism, had created these new states, which would become Islamic states. In a way he understood from within being an Iraqi Jew, having been kicked out and having to go to England and live and becoming a pretty well known historian, an important one. But unfortunately not that well read anymore and not well studied anymore, but vital to know his story and to see his attitude. “Irresponsible adventurers,” fantastic phrase, I think. You know, encourage Arab nationalism, but not far behind is always going to be the shadow of religion, you know? In his view and many others as well. And this idea that it’s a romanticization, you know? See it for what it really is in his view. He saw what he called that they would be an awakening of Arab nationalism, which would ultimately become tied to Arab, Islam as well in the Middle East. He saw it as inevitable, as a result of all the policy that I mentioned. Whether you had a more hands-off or more hands-on policy, those debates are a bit separate for him. But it was that fundamental encouragement, Arab nationalism that he feared or that he wrote about. He accused many of the western orientalists as they became you known. She was called the Oriental secretary and advisor to the empire, the British Empire, you know? So he accused many western orientalists of having a romantic, idealised view of the Arab world. And because of that, he felt quite strongly that he could almost foresee what would happen. So he in my eyes is a very important part of this whole story, which begins before empire, then comes into empire, and then he is an Iraqi Jew, outsider of the outsiders, then writing about it.

It goes through Lawrence, it goes through Gertrude Bell, and many others. And we end up with his insights, which I think are crucial to the whole story of this period. Finally, I want to mention that of course, this romantic idealisation, partly anyway with the desert and the desert world, and it is exotic and it is real. Let’s be obvious, you know? It’s in the 1993 Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. It becomes pastiche and kitch in the, “Indiana Jones” movies as well in popular film. The film made by Herzog was in 2015 and called, “Queen of the Desert” as she was known or later became called as well. Last thing I want to mention, that she wrote over two and half thousand letters, you know? And letters, not just quick email or quick text. So a complicated, complex, brilliant person, highly intelligent, fiercely independent, I think fascinating if one stepped back from one’s own emotions and one sees the whole picture of British imperialism of this area through the eyes of these individuals. And I love storytelling. So the story of Gertrude Bell, the story of Lawrence, the story of others. Look at Churchill and Gallipoli next week. But we can experience it perhaps in a more personal way through all these stories, and why filmmakers and theatre people take up these people and make movies and plays out of it. Okay, thanks very much. We go straight onto questions, go here and just one sec.

Q&A and Comments:

Okay, Gene, “I love you” inverted for me. “Very South African, Americans look at you strangely if you use those words.” Okay, thanks a lot Gene. Rita, “Invention of a Frenchman,” ah, I did not know that. A printer in the mid 16 hundreds, fascinating. What an extraordinary group, lockdown, everybody is here. The knowledge, Romaine, thank you.

Merna, “It’s interesting that apparently she was accepted by the Arabs and equal to men.” I don’t know, she was accepted because also, she was representing, let’s be honest, a very wealthy and influential British industrialist. And she was in a way, partly an emissary and a developer of imperial policy. So you are right Merna, that they would’ve seen her in that context, but they had to accept her. She’s a woman in these times. So I agree completely, pretty unique.

Soot, the name of the OG movie is, “Queen of the Desert.”

Q: Elliot, “Was John Philby related to the traitor, Kim Philby?”

A: That I was about to check and I’m going to check and get back to you on that Elliot, thank you. I’m sure part of the family, if not direct.

Sandy, “Father.” Okay, thank you for that, Sandy, I appreciate. Well, Kim Philby’s father, everything in the end is connections to connections.

Q: Barit, “Did Gertrude Bell ever go to Africa?”

A: Well, only that whole northern, let’s call it what they called at the time, Arabia. You know, I dunno if ever going further, Sub-Saharan.

Q: “Did Belle dress up as Arabs, like British men?”

A: That’s fascinating, and I’ve tried to find pictures or tried to find evidence of that. There’s little glimpses here and there, but nothing like the men did. The men, the ones that I’ve shown, like Lawrence took on the whole paraphernalia, the entire costume. The British, some of the men anyway. But I haven’t found one picture where, you know, a few little things here and there, but that’s really to keep up the heat and the sun. But she dressed much more as an English woman from, well, from the northeast at the times, that she was brought up.

Margaret, “You mentioned Syria, Mesopotamia, Arabia. I’d like to map.” I showed a map last week when I showed the, “Lawrence of Arabia” film, so I didn’t want to show it again, Margaret. That’s the reason. Arabia would’ve been what we call Saudi Arabia, it would’ve included Persia, would’ve even included… It was just a general name for the whole of the Middle East, but later became more specific. What is today Saudi Arabia, Persia, or Iran, Iraq, the UAE, Abu Dhabi, all those areas. You know, basically the oil areas, fundamentally.

Q: Bernard, “Was she related to the Bloomsbury Bells?”

A: Not as far as I know, but that’s a great question, Bernard. I’ll check it.

Q: Marin, “Would John Philby had been from the family?”

A: Yeah, well, as we’ve just heard from the others, that’s really helpful, thank you.

Q: Myrna, “For many of today’s ambassadors or government representatives, do they bother or inspired to even learn the languages, open they’re reliant translators?”

A: Yeah, I agree. I think that these people went out, they learned the language, they learn the culture, the history, they didn’t just get parachuted in. They went to, and also they went, I think really out of a sense of adventure and exploring. You know, these are empire times, these are imperial times. They really go out and celebrate ruling, you know? They’re not trying to pretend they don’t want to rule. They don’t have any PC woke-ism of today of, “I don’t want to really say I want to rule.” They loved it, they wanted to say, “Yeah, of course we’re coming to rule,” you know? “We’ve arrived,” like the Romans, “We’ve arrived,” or the Greeks and many others. And they celebrated and loved that they were ruling.

Ron, great to see you, Ron hope you’re doing well. “Not only were Clive and Vanessa Bell part of the Bloomsbury group, so was Keynes.” Ah, great.

Q: “Did Gertrude interact with him?”

A: Okay, that I have to check and find out. Great question, Ron, thank you.

Susan, “'Letters from Baghdad’ is available in Prime video.” Thanks for that.

Q: Maria, “Who was the author of, "Colonised, Christianized, Civilised”?

A: Dr. David Livingston, that was his phrase.

Q: Maria, “How could the British wear fur and hats in the desert heat?”

A: Great question, you know? Well, the British, look at the military costumes that the ordinary soldiers had to wear in the desert heat. I mean, a T-shirt shirt and then the red tunic on top, and I mean, unbelievable amount of heat and sweat, you know? And even in India, the boiling heat, same things. Had to distinguish, I think from, that they with a superior race, the superior group, nation, you know? So no matter what, they would stick to it, I think. And it would’ve been the way I’m thinking to set them apart, not similar, as superior.

Q: Susan, “How did she ultimately see the Middle East?”

A: Well, I don’t think she ever changed from being such an arabist. I think that she was disillusioned because she was kicked out of, let’s call it the circles of influence and power and made the director of the library, the director of antiquities, the museums, and all of that. But I don’t think she ever lost that romantic perception or idealism of the Middle East. Very different to Lawrence. Lawrence is a very different approach. And Churchill and many of the others, they didn’t romantic… Lawrence romanticised it, but then changes when he gets back to England, he questions at least, Churchill and many of the others, they also do because they never lose sight of one thing, it’s an imperial project, so that guides everything. She and the others get caught up in the romanticization that surrounds it, not just as an imperial endeavour.

Q: Molly, “Was GB, Gertrude Bell an evangelical Christian like Lawrence?”

A: Not that I know of, “Lloyd George and so many others.” Yeah, exactly, no, not that I know of. It’s a great point though.

Q: Myrna, “Where’s the name of Iraq come from?”

A: I’ve got to check that as well. You all know these are great questions, which I’m going to check up straight after.

Rita, “Draughts off from Arabic, meaning the Fertile Crescent.” Great, thank you, thanks, Rita.

Q: Romane, “Did Bell see Jews as part of Western intrusion and Arab ?”

A: Well as we spoke later, seriously, anti-Semitic.

Q: “Did she see part of Western?”

A: That’s a really, really interesting question, Romane that’s great. I think that she was fundamentally antisemitic, I do. Because she didn’t object to British Western intrusion into the Arab world. She wanted hands-off rule, but she didn’t object to the British being there. She wanted self-determination. But she saw that in the context of that’s how you rule more effectively as well. And when she mixed with the power brokers, that’s what she always would argue. So I do think, especially ‘cause those letters are to her mother, that those are antisemitic sentiments, Rita, thank you.

Sandy, “Surely Gertrude, and Eddie had the same view, the creation of Israel.” No, well, she died in 1926 and he’s born in 1926. So it’s the beginnings of the idea of Zionism in a way. Well, it’s more than the beginnings, but we don’t yet have the creation of Israel. So she sees it in the very, very early stages, I think. But she’s against it for the two reasons that you’ve mentioned. The one is that, you take a group who are fundamentally so European and put them there, they’re never going to make it or survive. But then in addition, I do see Phil, there’s an antisemitism inside it.

Q: Adele, “As a woman, how did she navigate her security from a male dominated world?”

A: Well, let’s also remember she would’ve had many Arab guides, and soldiers, and many to protect her from her own family wealth. And because she is fundamentally and an emissary, perhaps an intelligence officer, a spy for the British. So she would’ve had protexia.

Michael, “The Kedouri family were very prominent in Hong Kong, when it was still under British dominion.” Oh, that’s really interesting, Michael, thank you.

Q: Cecilia, “The connection with the oil companies?”

A: Well, set up by the British of course, because that’s the source of wealth and probably the main reason for conquering those areas. You know, why else conquer it? As I said, get rich back at home, Margaret, thank you. Now this is really interesting and really important.

Q: Greta, “Did she have views on the position of Arab woman?”

A: I don’t think so, because let’s remember, she was against the suffragette movement for most of her life. So she was against equality for women in the vote back in London. So she’s against that and, but not for herself, but for others back in England. So a highly complex and multifaceted look, complex and complicated person, but a part of what makes her fascinating, and unnerving, and probably even disturbing.

Marilyn, “Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun.” Great, that’s it, that’s the line, thank you.

David, “It’s a very telling photo of Gertrude and Lawrence, was a good friend of Vita Sackville-West” Yeah, absolutely. Okay, I think that’s, oh no, there’s some more here.

Q: Esther, “How did she handle elimination?”

A: Not sure elimination from what? Need to know a little bit more about that, Esther, but thank you.

Okay, so thank you very much everybody. Really, really important, fascinating questions. So hope everybody’s going to have a great rest of the weekend. And Jess, as always, thanks very much for your help.