Philby , Harry St John Bridger , 1885-1960 , explorer and Arabist x Abdullah , Saudis Sheikh

Born 1885; educated Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge, 1904; Indian Civil Service; posted to the Punjab, 1908; civilian administrator, Mesopotamian expeditionary force, 1915; personal assistant to Percy Cox; head of a mission to Ibn Sa'ud, ruler of the Nejd in central Arabia, 1917; long leave in England; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (RGS), 1919-1960; RGS Gold Medallist - Founder's Medal, 1920; recalled to Baghdad to help with the administration of the new state of Iraq; British representative in Transjordan, 1921-1924; left public service, 1925; settled in Jiddah, founded a trading company, Sharqieh Ltd, and became a close friend and an unofficial adviser of Ibn Sa'ud; made a series of explorations, of which the greatest was his crossing of the Empty Quarter,1932; converted to Islam and assumed the name Saudis Sheikh Abdullah, 1930; stood as an anti-war candidate in a by-election in Hythe, 1939; arrested in Bombay, taken to England, and imprisoned briefly under wartime regulations, 1940; involved for a time with the Common Wealth party; returned to Arabia; after the death of Ibn Sa'ud in 1953 his outspoken criticisms of the extravagance and corruption under the new king led in 1955 to his exile in the Lebanese village of Ajaltun; died, 1960.