Passport details
Born in Washington, County Durham, 14 July 1868.
Claim to fame
It might seem a stretch to call Gertrude Bell “lesser known”, given that Werner Herzog made a biopic about her, Queen of the Desert, starring Nicole Kidman. However, the movie was a critical and commercial flop and Gertrude is still far from being a household name. Her achievements were extraordinarily wide-ranging: she was a precocious and gifted scholar, travelled round the world twice, spoke better Arabic than TE Lawrence, translated Persian poetry and carried out archaeological work in Turkey and Mesopotamia. Her greatest and most troubled legacy is Iraq itself. As the modern Middle East took shape from the ruins of the Ottoman empire, Gertrude argued in favour of Iraqi self-government, helped establish its borders, draft its constitution, and founded its National Museum.
Supporting documentation
Gertrude was not only a brilliant letter-writer and diarist, but also a pioneering photographer, documenting her globetrotting adventures and her archaeological work in thousands of images. These are archived along with her papers and working library at Newcastle University.
Distinguishing marks
There’s a kind of kinship between Gertrude and the marvellous Hester Stanhope exactly a century earlier: both were unconventional women who had to look beyond their own cultures to find an outlet for their talents. Tall, striking and brilliant like Hester, Gertrude also stirred up the same kind of misogyny. Objecting to Gertrude’s support for the Arabs, the diplomat and traveller Sir Mark Sykes called her “the silly chattering windbag of conceited, gushing, flat-chested, man-woman, globe-trotting, rump-wagging, blethering ass!” However, Gertrude is not exactly an icon of early feminism. She openly campaigned against giving women the vote and was the honorary secretary of the Anti-Suffrage League.
Last sighted
In her latter years, Gertrude was dismayed to be sidelined from her role in the administration of Iraq. She began devoting more attention to her cultural work, founding the National Museum, which was installed in a permanent home in 1926, the year of her death. An air of tragedy lingers over her achievements. The government she helped bring to power was overthrown in 1958. A series of military coups and deepening repression followed. The National Museum was looted in the aftermath of the invasion in 2003 and thousands of its artefacts are still missing. Gertrude herself was found dead in Baghdad on 12 July 1926, having died in her sleep. The cause of death was an overdose of sleeping pills. It may have been suicide.
Intrepidness rating
Gertrude’s life and accomplishments are a panorama that’s too vast to take in with a single glance. She still awaits adequate recognition: 9.
