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Gertrude Margaret Lowthian Bell was born at Washington Hall, County Durham, on 14 July 1868; educated at Queen's College, Harley Street, London, a leading girls' school, and at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, which she entered in April 1886 and after only two years, she gained a first in modern history in 1888. After completing her studies, Bell was sent by her family on a European tour, staying in Bucharest during 1888-1889; visited Constantinople early in 1889, returning to England later that year. The following three years were divided between the family home in Redcar and London. Bell later visited Persia in 1892 and on her return to England she was persuaded to publish, anonymously, a series of her travel sketches adapted from her letters, Safar Nameh, Persian Pictures (1894). During the 1890s Bell undertook travels to France, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland. In the summers of 1899-1904, with the brothers Ulrich and Heinrich Fuhrer as guides, she undertook a series of expeditions in the Alps, tacking the Meije in August 1899 and Mont Blanc in the following summer. She became attracted to travelling in the East and including visits to Syria and Jerusalem and began publishing her accounts of her journeys. She undertook many expeditions including a number with archaeologist, Sir William Ramsay.
Bell was elected a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in June 1913 soon after membership was opened to women. In Basrah in June 1916 she joined the staff of Sir Percy Cox, chief political officer with the expeditionary force, and was appointed assistant political officer, the only woman to hold formal rank within the force. Early in 1916 Bell was summoned to India and asked by Lord Hardinge to proceed to Basrah on a liaison mission as the viceroy's personal envoy in order to assess the effects of the Arab Bureau's schemes, whose approach differed from the India Office's imperial policy. After the capture of Baghdad from the Turks by Lieutenant-General Sir Stanley Maude in March 1917, Bell continued to act as Cox's right hand in the civil administration of Mesopotamia, as his oriental secretary in charge of daily contacts with the population. Sir Percy Cox became British high commissioner in October 1920 and enhanced the role for Bell as oriental secretary, a position she held under him and his successor until her death. Gertrude Bell's position in Iraq was eroded after Iraq's new constitution (1924) and administrative structures replaced the old, colonial order. She was often at odds with Cox's successor, Sir Henry Dobbs.
In 1917 she was appointed CBE; became a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1913-1926 and received the RGS Founders Medal 1918. Bell died in Baghdad, July 1926 and was buried on the evening of the 12th in the British military cemetery there.