Gertrude Bell

[paul guthrie]

Terrific new - 2006 - bio with a great deal on WW1 when she was in charge of an office charged with determining what had happened to missing men. Much better known is he role in shaping policy towards Arabs particularly concering Iraq. She really knew her topic, the tribes, the personalities and during the war much of her advice was accepted but that went by the wayside after and at Versailles with poor results from policies such as Britain trying to subdue various peoples there with air power, machine guns and gas.

There was plenty of expertise available to the British government and much more attention was paid at least for a while than in current times both in the US and UK.

Great book, fascinating brilliant woman.

[MartinWills]

Paul,

Any revalations in respect of Doughty-Wylie?

Martin

[Ozzie]

Shall have to have a look at the updated version.

Read it when my daughter did a piece on her in drama class.

I've made reference to her before, but it seemed no one was interested.

Her work echoes in the Middle East today.

We visited Doughty - Wylie's grave, and Kenen told us of the story of a woman in black who came ashore to visit the grave.

Cheers

Kim

[paul guthrie]

Martin no relevations but she makes a good argument that Gertrude had the pull and the opportunity to get it done. A big surprise is the position she takes that they never actually became lovers.

[michaeldr]

Alas I do not remember where [said he trying hard not to appear senile]

but I have seen a ref to Mrs. Doughty-Wylie presenting prizes at a sports day on one of the islands, albeit, post evacuation

If correct this would tie in with stories of her leaving her nursing work in the west

to come to the eastern Med. to be near to her husband's grave

and while it is possible that both women were in the area, perhaps at different times,

I tend to go along with the family's tradition that it was she rather than Gertrude Bell who actually visited the grave.

Time is short at the moment but I will try to get back to this with something more definite

regards

Michael

[michaeldr]

Not the ref I was looking for, but in some ways better

See the IWM record of the diaries of Mrs Doughty-Wylie which it holds

These details will give some idea of her travels, including her work during WWI and after

There seems to be a gap between Sept '15 and April 1916;

did she arrive early in the eastern Med and so get to see her husband's grave before the evacuation?

click here

With apologies to Paul for the intrusion on the Gertrude Bell thread

Michael

Edited 31 May , 2008 by michaeldr