GERTRUD MARGARET LOWTHIAN BELL

who became an explorer of Arabia and a founder of Iraq  

by Edward Poynter in 1876 

Sir Hugh Bell,  heir to the Bell Brothers industrial empire, and his daughter Gertrude Bell,aged 8. Her mother Mary Bell (née Shield) died in 1871 while giving birth to a son, Maurice Bell (later the 3rd Baronet). When Gertrude was seven years old, her father remarried, providing 

her a stepmother, Florence Bell (née Olliffe),

1888: A Historic First at Oxford

At just 20 years old, Gertrude graduated from the University of Oxford with a First-Class honors degree in Modern History. She accomplished this in only two years, becoming the first woman to achieve this distinction at the university.

1892. Viaje a Persia

 para reunirse con su tío, Sir Frank Lascelles, donde él estaba ejerciendo  el cargo de ministro británico en Teherán. 

“Qué grande es el mundo, qué grande y qué maravilloso. Me resulta ridículamente presuntuoso

 atreverme a llevar mi pequeña personalidad a través de medio planeta..”

18 de junio de 1892 desde Gulahek (la residencia de verano de la legación británica en Teherán, Persia)

a su primo Horace Marshall

1897- 1898 Berlin  

“We were all sent for in the entr'acte - Florence and I had not expected to be prayed - and we had a very agreeable tea party with the Emperor and Empress and her sister, Princess Feodore of Saxe Meiningen. It was like an act out of another historical drama - but a modern one. A sheaf of telegrams were handed to the Emperor as we sat at tea. He and Uncle Frank fell into an excited conversation in low voices; we talked on to the the Empress trying to pretend we heard nothing but catching scraps of the Emperor's remarks "Crete [Kriti].. Bulgaria.. Servia mobilizing" and so forth. The Empress kept looking up at him anxiously - she is terribly perturbed about it all and no wonder for he is persuaded that we are all on the brink of war.”

Letter written by Gertrude Bell to Florence Bell, Berlin ,on the 17th of February 1897

                 1901–1904: Conquering the Alpine Peaks

An elite mountaineer, she charted new routes in the Swiss Alps. In 1901, she became the first person to summit several peaks in the Engelhörner range, one of which was named Gertrudspitze in her honor. During a 1902 expedition on the Finsteraarhorn, she survived a legendary 53-hour ordeal trapped on a rope during a fierce blizzard.

Climbing the Swiss Alps in a full skirt, 1901

1913–1914: The Perilous Journey to Ha'il

Gertrude undertook a daring 1,500-mile expedition into the uncharted heart of the Arabian Desert. She was captured and held prisoner for eleven days in the isolated city of Ha'il. Despite the danger, she gathered invaluable geographical, tribal, and political data that no westerner had collected before

 The gates of Ha'il taken by Bell in 1913, then part of the Rashidi Emirate

1915 The Boulogne Red Cross Office- London Red Cross Headquarters

Gertrude felt strongly that the Red Cross should be as sensitive as possible when informing families of the loss of their sons, fathers and brothers, and eIn March 1915, Gertrude agreed to move to the headquarters of the London Red Cross in London, to continue her work recording missing and wounded soldiers, and informing their families. Determined to do the job well, Gertrude found herself once more frustrated with the lack of adequate facilities, and most of all with the lack of space, writing to her mother that (20th August 1915):xplained this to her mother (12th January 1915):

1921: The Cairo Conference and the Birth of Iraq

During World War I, British intelligence recruited her for her unmatched knowledge of Arab tribes. In 1921, she attended the Cairo Conference alongside Winston Churchill and T.E. Lawrence ("Lawrence of Arabia"). As the Oriental Secretary, she played a pivotal role in drawing the borders of modern Iraq and placing King Faisal I on the throne.

Some of the places where visited and worked

1926 Last year

Gertrude Bell at Kish, Iraq, in March 1926

Iraq, March 1918

Estoy sentada en mi jardín para escribir; hace un clima delicioso tras dos días de un viento del sur 

y un polvo intolerables.

A su madrastra Florence Oliffe 6 de abril de 1926, 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmBACliA1GY

Maqâm de Bagdad (Irak)

En sus numerosas cartas a casa, la Sra. Bell ofrece vislumbres fascinantes de la vida en el Irak de la década de 1920: bañarse en el río, tomar el té de la tarde con el rey y "clasificar sellos" en el nuevo museo arqueológico de Bagdad, el cual ella fundó. En su última carta a casa dirigida a sus padres, el 30 de junio de 1926, escribió: 

"A menudo me pregunto cómo pasaban el verano los antiguos babilonios, con quienes ahora siento una conexión tan estrecha. De manera muy similar a nosotros, me atrevería a decir, pero sin nuestro hielo y ventiladores eléctricos, que contribuyen enormemente a las comodidades de la existencia".  

 Gertrude Bell. Gertrude Margaret Lowthian Bell 

14 de julio de 1868, Durham 12 de julio de 1926, Bagdad.