A Woman in Arabia (3 page)
Authors: Gertrude Bell
February | Victoria; Edward VII succeeds to the throne |
MarchâAugust | GLB in Redcar and London |
Sir Lowthian sells majority holdings in the Bell companies and merges steel interests with Dorman Long (in 1902), releasing substantial funds; Hugh takes directorships in all Bell associated companies | |
August | GLB in Bernese Oberland, climbs Schreckhorn and Engelhörner range; Gertrudspitze named in her honor |
SeptemberâDecember | In England, takes up photographic developing |
1902 JanuaryâMay | Travels with father and Hugo to Malta, then to Sicily, to be guided by Winston Churchill; travels on alone to Greece, Turkey, Lebanon, and Palestine |
Maurice Bell returns from South Africa wounded | |
Ibn Saud regains Riyadh from Rashid dynasty in night attack | |
May | Boer War ends |
July | GLB in Switzerland; via new route almost reaches summit of Finsteraarhorn, frostbitten |
SeptemberâNovember | GLB in England, engages lady's maid Marie Delaire |
November | GLB leaves for second world tour, with Hugo |
December | GLB attends Delhi durbar as guest of the Viceroy |
1903 | GLB and Hugo continue to Afghanistan, the Himalayas, Burma, Singapore, Hong Kong, China, Korea, Japan, Vancouver, the Rocky Mountains, Canada, Boston, and Chicago |
July | Return to England |
1904 January | Half-sister Molly marries Charles Trevelyan |
February | Sir Lowthian gives £5,000 ($752,000 RPI adjusted) to each of his grandchildren |
April | Entente Cordiale established between Britain and France |
August | GLB at Zermatt, climbs the Matterhorn |
September | GLB in England |
November | Studies antiquities in Paris with Salomon Reinach |
December | Sir Lowthian, 88, dies on the 20th at London home, Belgravia; Hugh succeeds to baronetcy and inherits £750,000 ($112,816,000 RPI adjusted) |
GLB goes on archaeological trip via Paris, Marseilles, Naples, Beirut, Haifa, and Jerusalem; then takes desert route to Druze mountains, Damascus, Homs, Baalbek, Orontes valley, and Aleppo; continues on horseback to Antioch, Osmaniye, Adana, Tarsus, and Karaman; then by train to Konya, explores Binbirkilise | |
1905 April | GLB recruits Fattuh, her principal servant on future desert journeys |
May | Stays in Constantinople before returning to England to begin writing |
Sir Hugh and family move to Rounton Grange | |
October | Studies ancient manuscripts in Paris with Reinach; writes essay on the geometry of the cruciform structure |
NovemberâDecember | Begins to transform the Rounton Grange gardens |
DecemberâFebruary (1906) | Travels to Gibraltar, Tangier, Spain, and Paris with Sir Hugh |
1906 FebruaryâDecember | GLB in England |
Sir Hugh appointed Lord Lieutenant of the North Riding of Yorkshire (25-year tenure) | |
December | GLB and Sir Hugh arrive in Cairo, joined by Hugo from Australia |
1907 February | Retum to England, delayed by Sir Hugh's illness |
MarchâJuly | GLB in Turkey, travels on horseback across Anatolia visiting ancient sites; works with Professor Sir William Ramsay in Binbirkilise; meets Dick Doughty-Wylie |
July | Half-sister Elsa marries Herbert, later Admiral Sir Herbert Richmond |
August | GLB takes Fattuh to hospital in Constantinople; guest of the grand vizier |
AugustâDecember | GLB in England; publication of |
October | GLB trains in surveying and mapmaking with the Royal Geographical Society |
1908 | Young Turks' Committee of Union and Progress rises against Sultan, taking six more years to achieve full power over Ottoman Empire |
GLB in England all year; becomes founding secretary of the Women's National Anti-Suffrage League; drafts | |
Doughty-Wylie unofficially rallies Turkish troops to stop massacre of Armenians, is wounded but organizes relief for 22,000 refugees | |
September | Hugo Bell ordained priest; curate of Guiseley, Leeds |
1909 JanuaryâJuly | GLB travels to Syria and Mesopotamia on horse- |
July | GLB in England; publication of |
Florence becomes first president of the North Riding branch of the British Red Cross (until 1930) | |
1910 January | Hugh Bell stands as Liberal parliamentary candidate for the City of London |
February | GLB visits archaeological sites in Italy; pays flying visit to Munich |
May | George V succeeds Edward VII |
1911 JanuaryâMay | GLB goes via Beirut and Damascus across the desert to Baghdad to check measurements of Ukhaidir; travels north along Tigris; meets T. E. Lawrence at Carchemish in Syria working for David Hogarth |
June | Returns to England; publication of |
1912 | GLB in England all year; involved in worldwide fund-raising for relief of Constantinople after the great fire; creates new water garden at Rounton; meets Doughty-Wylie in London |
1913 | GLB in England; completes |
Elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Geographical Society; presented with a miniature theodolite as its Gill Memorial Award; she is the first woman to receive an RGS award | |
Woodrow Wilson becomes 28th president of the United States | |
November | GLB travels to Damascus to organize journey to Hayyil, with intention of meeting Ibn Saud in Riyadh |
December | GLB and caravan leave for Hayyil |
1914 February | GLB arrives in Hayyil, put under house arrest by the ruling Rashids, then released |
FebruaryâMay | Continues to Baghdad; journeys through Mesopotamian and Syrian deserts |
Returns to England | |
June | Churchill persuades British parliament to approve Admiralty purchase of 51 percent of Anglo-Persian oil company to secure fuel for navy |
Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria shot at Sarajevo on the 28th | |
July | GLB awarded Gold Medal by the Royal Geographical Society |
August | First World War begins; GLB gives speeches to raise troops |
Publication of | |
Maurice mobilized as Lieutenant Colonel commanding 4th (territorial) Battalion, Green Howards | |
October | Turkey joins war as ally of Germany |
November | GLB works at Lord Onslow's Hospital, Clandon Park, Surrey |
British Indian Army expeditionary force occupies Shatt al Arab and creates a base at Basra | |
GLB takes charge of the Red Cross Wounded and Missing Bureau in Boulogne | |
1915 April | Maurice Bell on Western Front leads attack at Fortuin |
Lady Florence sets up auxiliary convalescent hospital for the Red Cross at Rounton Village Institute | |
British begin Gallipoli campaign against the Turks on the 25 | |
AprilâNovember | GLB opens new London office at 20 Arlington Street for the Red Cross Wounded and Missing Bureau |
May | British Liberal prime minister Asquith invites Bonar Law's Conservatives to join a coalition government; Churchill forced to resign from the Admiralty |
September | British win decisive battle against Turkish/Arab army at Kut and advance to Ctesiphon near Baghdad |
November | 17th: GLB leaves Sloane Street, London |
20th: She embarks at Marseilles for Egypt | |
26th: She dines in Port Said with Lawrence and Hogarth | |
27thâ29th: She is missing, probably took ship to Dardanelles, climbing beach to visit the grave of Doughty-Wylie | |
30th: GLB back in Port Said, takes train to Cairo | |
British defeated by Turkish force at Ctesiphon, retreat to Kut | |
NovemberâDecember | GLB works in Cairo for Gilbert Clayton, director of military intelligence and also responsible for Egyptian civil intelligence |
December | British encircled at Kut, siege begins |
1916 JanuaryâFebruary | GLB in India, advises viceroy |
Arab Bureau established in Cairo to collect intelligence of Middle Eastern affairs and disseminate information to British government departments | |
FebruaryâDecember | GLB in Basra as assistant political officer with rank |
February | Hogarth in Cairo office initiates the “Arab Bulletin” as a regular intelligence report; GLB is the principal contributor from Basra |
March | British evacuate Gallipoli |
Maurice wounded in France | |
April | T. E. Lawrence arrives in Basra with authority to bribe the Turks to lift the siege of Kut; he and GLB “had great talks and made vast schemes for the government of the universe” |
Turks enter Kut, population massacred; many British troops die in forced march northward | |
May | Secret Sykes-Picot Agreement anticipates postwar division of influence in Middle East between France, Britain, and Russia |
June | GLB appointed head of Iraq branch of the Arab Bureau as an officer of the Indian Expeditionary Force D (IEFD; based in Basra) while also serving Cox |
Hashemite family leads inconclusive revolt of Arabs against Turkish rule in western Arabia | |
September | GLB in hospital with jaundice; then holidays on Euphrates |