Journal of The Royal Central Asian Society

ISSN: 0035-8789 (Print) (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/raaf19

In memoriam

Ethel John Lindgren

To cite this article: Ethel John Lindgren (1961) In memoriam, Journal of The Royal Central Asian
Society, 48:1, 4-14, DOI: 10.1080/03068376108731717

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03068376108731717

Published online: 25 Feb 2011.

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 IN MEMORIAM
MISS FRANCESCA LAW FRENCH AND MISS EVANGELINE
FRENCH

T
WO Central Asian explorers of unsurpassed courage and enterprise
died last summer : Miss Evangeline French on July 8 at the age of
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91 and her sister Francesca on August 2, aged 88. For years they
had been living quietly at The Willow Cottage, Stour Row, Shaftesbury.
With Miss Mildred Cable, the tireless organizer who predeceased them in
1952, they had crossed and recrossed the Gobi, observing and talking with
many scarcely-known peoples in their own tongues and in their own homes,
following their trails by the traditional methods of travel—often the acutely
uncomfortable Chinese wooden cart. Of these studies they leave records,
in meticulous and scholarly detail, which enrich knowledge of a vast area;
but they went as members of the China Inland Mission and between them
gave 98 years to " the business of die Kingdom of God " in the Far East.
Evangeline French had worked in N.W. China for 15 years when
Francesca joined her, after their widowed mother's death. Through Jade
Gate and Central Asia: An Account of Journeys in Kansu, Turkestan and
the Gobi Desert, published by Mildred Cable and Francesca French in
1927, established them at once in the first rank of explorers whose chief
concern is not stones but human beings. A Desert Journal, based on
letters written by all three from June, 1928 (Srinagar) to June, 1932 (Urum-
chi), was compared by Alan Brodrick " with the story of a Shackleton, a
Grenfell, a Livingstone." The Gobi Desert, a major work by Miss Cable
and Francesca French, appeared in the darkest period of the Second World
War (1942), sold out and was reprinted for the sixth time in December,
1943. It contains much wisdom which airborne post-war travellers should
try to absorb before taking off, and which readers of current reports
might use as a touchstone in judging credibility. The Prologue gives a key
to the strange freemasonry of Central Asia :
" We found the desert to be unlike anything that we had pictured. . . .
The oasis dwellers were poor but responsive; the caravan men were rugged
but full of native wit; the outstanding personalities of the oases were men
of character and distinction; the towns were highly individualistic and each
small water-stage had some unique feature. Even the monotonous out-
lines of the desert, when better known, wore a subtly changing aspect. . . .
Once the spirit of the desert had caught us it lured us on and we became
learners in its severe school. The solitudes provoked reflection . . . the
silences forbade triviality. . . . "
The religious mainspring of the long pilgrimage is found in other
works : Something Happened, Ambassadors for Christ, Towards Spiritual
Maturity, A Parable of Jade. There were biographical tributes to fellow
pilgrims in George Hunter, Apostle of Turkestan and an account of his
4
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MISS FRAM:KSC:A LAW FRENCH

T«J,llr,,.4
 IN MEMORIAM 5
disciple, The Maying of a Pioneer: The Life of Percy Mather (1935). The
sisters' practical concern for the weak is seen in Grace, Child of the Gobi
and The Story of Topsy: Little Lonely of Central Asia. Friends of the
Misses French would wish to record their gratitude to Ai Lien (" Topsy "),
the deaf and dumb but gifted Mongol-Tibetan girl who is now Miss Eileen
Guy, British subject, and rewarded her guardians' kindness by a lifetime of
devotion and care.
Evangeline and Francesca French are not in Who's Who, and appar-
ently eluded most forms of public recognition. It also seems to have been
forgotten that they were younger sisters of Field-Marshal Lord French,
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first Earl of Ypres. On retirement from the mission field Francesca did
voluntary work for the British and Foreign Bible Society, becoming an hon-
orary life governor in 1945.
The " trio " (as they were called) toured Australia, New Zealand and
India for the Society after the war, as told in Journey with a Purpose.
Francesca perhaps revealed most of herself in Miss Brown's Hospital (1954),
the book she wrote alone after Mildred Cable's death. Discussing a crucial
interview by the future Dame Edith Brown with the Surgeon-General of
India, Francesca describes pioneers (p. 29) as " formidable people " equip-
ped with a " tenacity of purpose which enables them to overcome opposi-
tion and all the difficulties of circumstance. If they do not walk in step
with their fellows it is because they listen to a drum tap heard only by
themselves. . . ." She could not have written a more revealing epitaph for
herself and her two companions.
ETHEL JOHN LINDGREN.

LIEUT.-COLONEL E. H. GASTRELL, O.B.E.,

late Indian Political Service

I
IEUT.-COLONEL E. H. GASTRELL'S sudden death from a coronary
thrombosis on September 21, while on a holiday in Wales, was a
_J grevious blow to his many friends in the Society, of which he had
been a member since 1932. He joined the Council in 1954 and became
a Vice-President in 1957. A keen student of Central Asian affairs, he took
an active part in the Council's deliberations and seldom missed a meeting.
" Evvie " Gastrell was a third-generation servant of India, for his grand-
father served the East India Company and his father was for years Adviser
to Indian Ruling Princes. He was commissioned in 1916 at the age of
18 and fought with Hudson's Horse in France and afterwards in the East
Persia Cordon Field Force. Here he had his first taste of political work
as Vice-Consul at Qain and fell under the spell of Persia. He joined the
Indian Political Service in 1922 and for the next twelve years served mostly
in Persia and the Gulf, holding among others the posts of Vice Consul
at Ahwaz, Secretary to the Political Resident at Bushire, and Consul at
 IN MEMORIAM
Zahedan. In 1927 he married Delicia Crampton, an enthusiastic traveller
like himself, and when at Bushire in 1934 a chance came to officiate for
a year as Consul-General at Meshed they motored happily the length and
breadth of Persia via Tehran to get there. The following year Gastrell
joined the Baluchistan Administration as Quetta Earthquake Claims Com-
missioner; this was followed by strenuous years as Political Agent Quetta-
Pishin, Political Agent for Kalat and the Bolan Pass, and (in 1939) Census
Commissioner. From 1941 to 1943 he did outstanding work as the Vice-
roy's representative in the French possessions, Pondicherry, Chanderna-
gore, Mahé and the rest.
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In 1944 Gastrell was summoned to Tehran to succeed the late Sir

Giles Squire as Additional Counsellor at the British Embassy. Here his
intimate knowledge of provincial affairs in the east and south were of
great assistance to the Ambassador, Sir Reader Bullard. In 1947 he went
to Meshed again as Consul-General and in 1949, no longer a servant of
India, he retired.
Not many British married couples have travelled further in the Middle
East than the Gastrells did, nor to more interesting places. Not content
with the immense distances normally covered by " Politicals " on tour and
transfer during their careers, they spent their short leaves trekking too.
They visited as tourists practically every historic spot in the Indian Empire
and Persia that they did not see on duty. Dne " casual " leave they spent
at Gangtok, another at Kabul, and they twice motored to England on fur-
lough by different routes.
After retirement they settled jn Wimbledon and took up social work,
especially Marriage Guidance for which (being themselves an ideally happy
couple) they were admirably fitted; Gastrell served on the Wimbledon
Marriage Guidance Council for ten years, first as honorary secretary and
later as chairman. His widow's consolation is the knowledge that he was
happy and in full possession of his faculties up to the hour of his death
and that he is mourned by an exceptionally wide circle of friends and ad-
mirers, Asian as well as British.
C. P. S.

H. St. JOHN B. PHILBY, C.I.E.

(Died 30 September, i960. He was a member of the R.C.A.S.

since 1919)
Douglas Carruthers writes :

M
Y acquaintance with the late H. St. J. B. Philby dates back to
1917, when he first entered Arabia, which he was to make his
home for the rest of his life, and where he established a position
almost unique in the annals of East and West.
Our collaboration was entirely geographical and zoological. At that
time I was trying to unravel the hydrography of Northern Arabia, and
to make some sort of reliable map, on a big scale, of what was then a vast
white patch. By 1918-19, poor maps, but the best possible, were emerging,
 IN MEMORIAM 7
just in time for the Peace Conference in Paris to use, when carving up that
area, and drawing the frontiers between three Kingdoms—Jordan, Iraq
and Saudi Arabia. Northern Arabia, as far south as Riyadh, came within
the scope of my operations, so my contact with Philby was essential and
we worked together harmoniously.
In 1917, recently appointed Political Advisor to Ibn Saud, he crossed
Arabia from the Gulf to Jidda—the first European to do so, since Sadlier,
100 years before, and the very first to survey his route accurately, checked
as his was by sun meridian latitudes taken with a sextant, and artificial
horizon. The accuracy of this 800-mile prismatic compass traverse needed
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little adjustment. I think I am right in saying that Philby was self-taught

in the matter of surveying, and if so, his maps of wide areas of completely
unknown regions, do him great credit. All his survey work, often carried
out under austere conditions, was first class, and, of course, his Arabic no-
menclature perfect.
After an excursion into Northern Najd, he made his first attempt into
the unknown south, to the borders of the Empty Quarter, which was, of
course, his lodestar. This journey resulted in a bundle of invaluable
sheets of survey over completely new country. No one had penetrated the
region beyond Jabrin, and explored the hypothetical Dawasir. He covered
some 800 miles of new ground, and mapped it in detail. I well remem-
ber unpacking a box of specimens at the British Museum and finding a
note inside : "Gut the fox and take them to the War Office." I opened up
the skin of a desert fox and found it stuffed with the original surveys which
eventually adorned his The Heart of Arabia, 2 Vols., London, 1922.
I claim some credit for kindling in Philby an interest in zoology and
ornithology. He responded by collecting for himself on his numerous
journeys, and inaugurating the valuable work done by George Latimer
Bates on the birds in the vicinity of Jidda. " All my new birds are cer-
tainly due to his example and teaching," he wrote. Had it not been for
Philby's hospitality and patronage, the four articles on the " Birds of Jidda
and Central Arabia," which appeared in the Ibis in 1936, would never have
seen the light of day. These articles were the foundation stone of the work
which culminated 18 years later in Colonel R. Meinertzhagen's monumen-
tal Birds of Arabia. Philbys' outstanding discoveries at that date were the
new Rock Patridge from the mountains around Taif, and the new, and
only, Woodpecker in Arabia.
He also paid attention to the mammals, and amongst the specimens he
sent home to the British Museum (Natural History) was a Gazelle, which
I was able to name, in collaboration with E. Schwarz, after the Wahabi
King—Gazella, gazella saudiya, a new sub-species from the Dhalm dis-
trict, 150 miles N.E. of Mecca. (See Proc. Zoo. Soc. London. Part 1.
1935). This particular specimen was actually shot by His Majesty. A de-
tailed description of their range came with these specimens, with the re-
mark, " it is high time you got out your study of these animals before they
become extinct "—the shooting trip on this occasion bagged about 1,200
gazelle !
He took infinite trouble to help me to elucidate some of the problems
in North Arabian topography, especially in the little-known triangle be-
 8 IN MEMORIAM
tween Khaibar, Taima and Hail. There were several doubtful oases, which
I ' ' placed " on the authority of Guarmani, Doughty and Huber, but
were eliminated on more recent maps. Philby took the trouble to fly over
die region in question, and settled the matter by locating the lost oases.
Philby did the same widi die one-time discredited wanderings of that
Italian horse-coper of 1864, Carlo Guarmani. He upheld my vindications
of his travels, and identified some of die more controversial place names
on his crude map. He was even complimentary enough to remark on my
analysis of various travellers in Najd that " it is impossible to believe that
Carruthers has not been there," I had not. •"
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An erstwhile Indian Civil Servant, turned Moslem, Philby was trader,

explorer, and eventually the confidant, and adviser, to the King Ibn Saud,
and resided at his Court. An office almost as strange as that of the Scots-
man, Keidi, who became Governor of the Holy City of Madina. He was
the author of no less dian fifteen books on Arabia, all of which rank as
standard works; his style remarkably unemotional for a traveller in a coun-
try which is notorious for its stimulating effect on the human mind and
body.
Fanatical in politics, therefore difficult in debate, he remains never-
theless an explorer of the most efficient type; painstaking to a degree, cor-
rect in detail; absolutely devoid of any tendency to exaggeration in his
writings : he bequeaths to us a vast store of knowledge about Arabia in
general, which is not to be found anywhere else.

Colonel Gerald de Gaury writes :

For Britishers who went to the Arab world between the two Great
Wars, Philby was a giant.
We waited for new books by him (somewhat heavy in style for the
general reader) with impatience and learnt his views with respect.
If there were not wanting account of his difficult and cantankerous
nature, it was attributed by us to trying himself overhard in great en-
deavour. The conditions of travel in Arabia for a European were often
appalling. Except by reading Charles Doughty, no one today can under-
stand the dangers and rigours of travel then.
I met him first, I diink, in Jedda or maybe, I cannot now be sure, I
went out from there to welcome him in the Wadi Fatima on return from
one of his expeditions. From time to time he would be disputatious,
though never, happily, widi me.
Some years later, in Riyadh, I heard from the King, that Philby was
arriving. I had not much hope of lastingly warm relations, but I deter-
mined for my part to make an especial effort toward them. For a time all
went very well socially. Then, to my pleasure, he invited me to a lun-
cheon (in, of course, the Arab style) and when the day and hour came I
found that he had left Riyadh the night before. Ibn Saud rocked widi
laughter. " Do you not know your Philby yet?" he asked between gusts.
Another day the King said to me, " One thing I can never under-
stand is that a man change the religion to which he is born. We diink
that our religion is the best and right one, praised be the Prophet, but no
 - IN MEMORIAM 9
man should change the religion of his people in which he is brought up.
I prefer men who do not ao so." He was at pains to explain that his
friendship for Philby was owed to knowing him for many years, since
days when Philby had helped him in the First War. What Ibn Saud
found difficult to understand, it must be hard for his countrymen to ap-
prove.
Philby's work of exploration was unrivalled and will remain so for
ever now. It was the longest, most painstaking and industrious under-
taken by any man in Arabia. And his range was wide; cartography, zoo-
logy, ornithology, history, topography, archaeology, etc., were all covered
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and each with success in its own field.

In the Second World War his wish to reach Arabia and overcome obstacles
put in his way led him into propounding a grandiose though unwise plan.
The result was an unhappy one for him and his waspish outspokenness
ended in serious trouble for him.
What led him on? What drove him so hard? Why was he often so
querulous? His background, his youthful success as a scholar, his physique
all seemed very sound. To a large extent jt was, of course, a desire to
triumph over his fellow men, for distinction at all costs. Only some three
Europeans, Pelly, Palgrave, whose account Philby doubted, and Colonel
Hamilton had ever been to Riyadh when Philby reached it. Much of
Arabia was still Wahhabi and wildly puritanical, so that to travel there
and come back was itself a triumph. But why the constant querulousness.
It is a mystery for some biographer to solve.
Sometimes, in the end, he showed signs of mellowness. Once, after
the War, he came almost humbly to parry an accusation of which I had
not heard. And his criticism of mistakes of detail in the play " Ross," which
he saw a few weeks before his death, was, I was told, almost benign,
whereas earlier it would surely have been sharp.
He received little or no formal recognition from British societies or
Government institutions, but with or without it, Philby will go down to
history as the supreme explorer of Arabia. He was also one of the first
among the few and great travellers in old Arabia.
Owing to his persistance, to the times in which he lived and to a faith-
ful friend, the great Ibn Saud, he achieved, moreover, absolute singularity
and almost complete independence. Philby, as he wished, was unmatch-
ably Philby.

Mr. Harold Ingrams writes :

One day in September I found myself imprisoned in a lift with an un-
usual door-catch. As I wrestled futilely with it, a gentle voice on the
other side said, "May I help you, Sir?" The door opened and Philby
and I recognized each other. It was some time since we had met and we
lunched together the following week.
We parted after two and half hours of talking, of which he did most.
The years were bridged while he told me of conditions in Saudi Arabia,
of his home life in Riyadh, of his visit to Moscow and of how he had
spent his time in England. He spoke of his journey back via Beirut and
 10 IN ME MORI AM
invited me to Riyadh. I walked away very happily, warmly conscious of
the frendship of which he gave so readily. It was a great shock little more
than a week later to read of his death.
I did not actually meet Philby until 1944 though my activities in the
Hadhramaut had received his attention in some articles and letters to the
press since 1938. He had made generous remarks about some minor ex-
ploring I had done, but strongly criticized what he considered the im-
perialist activities of the British Government which had, he asserted, an-
nexed a large part of South Arabia and was busily engaged in bringing it
under British rule by violent means. ^
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True, the British Government was at least indirectly responsible for

my presence in the Hadhramaut but it was I who had taken the initiative
in peace-making, and the responsibility also, since I was making the essen-
tial contacts direct with the tribes, contrary to policy and the orders I had
been given. Since Philby's charges were a travesty of what was happen-
ing I felt hurt ! However, I was asked to give some lectures when I came
home in 1944- These Philby attended and, in the discussions which fol-
lowed, paid more than generous tributes to what we and our Arab friends
had done, realizing entirely that there had been no hidden imperialism
either in my motives or in those of my masters. He referred reminiscently
to these things at our last meeting and hoped I had borne no ill-will. In-
deed I never had.
That I think illustrates much of Philby's character. There was a cer-
tain impetuosity in making judgements wimout full knowledge, especially
when he had strong feelings, as he had on many things. Probably it is
not too much to say that in his earlier days he believed in his own infal-
libility and he was no respecter of persons in speaking his mind. This
got him into trouble with the British Government and, much later, with
the present King of Saudi Arabia, but I do not think he was ever malicious
and his sense of humour never forsook him. Moreover, he never failed to
mention what he thought good of those he attacked and was often on terms
of close personal friendship with them.
His kindness to me when we met, and I saw'a good deal of him for
a few years, made me feel he must'be a good deal more mellow than he
had been, and advancing age mellowed him more and more. I found
him tolerant and easy to talk with and enjoyed every meeting we had,
besides profiting from his conversation and vast knowledge.of things
Arabian. His impetuosity must often have prevented people seeing how
often he was right, and it should not be overlooked that he was the first
to recognize the seeds of future greatness in Ibn Saud.
The history of Arabian exploration will perforce remain dominated by
the name of Philby. Though not quite the last of the explorers he was
the seal of them and added more to our knowledge of that land than any
of them. If he could criticize others on insufficient knowledge, his own
work was distinguished by a meticulous attention to detail which has en-
sured that it has never been faulted. In so far as I had occasion to follow
paths he had trodden in the south I can testify to that, as others have done
elsewhere. His explorations began when Blunt and Doughty were still
alive. He saw the Arabia they knew and he watched with sorrow its life
 IN MEMORIAM II

being changed by the internal combustion engine and the discovery of oil.
Though he clung to the old ways himself, he told me at our last meeting
of how the new Arabia was coming to terms with the modern age as some-
thing which had to be accepted.
All the great Arabian explorers have been individualists and eccentrics,
but Philby had the virtues which the best of English and Arabs share. He
was kind and courteous, generous and gentle. In London, and especially
in the Athenaeum, he was the distinguished scholar and traveller, well-liked
by all who knew him. In Riyadh he was Haj Abdulla, the Arabian elder
statesman, respected by all, the friend of the old King.
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Peace be upon him !

Wing-Commander Eric" Macro writes :

In 1929 a prep-school boy staggered his English master by chosing
Philby as his subject for an essay on " The Greatest Man of Our Time."
When taxed by his master, after the essay had received good marks, on
how it was that he came to know so much about an unknown man, the boy
produced from his tuck-box a copy of Southern Najd and a whole scrap-
book full of book reviews, photographs and pencilled notes relating to
the author of that small treasure from the Cairo Government Press.
Harry Philby was never the schoolboy hero, never the great Empire
man in spite of his being inspired, in his Westminster days, by Warren
Hastings—" impeachment and all." And this perhaps provides the key
to his personality. Was the inborn rebel too strong for the Empire builder ?
I do not think that he would ever have wished his life to take a different
turn. As head boy at Westminster and in his last year at Trinity he was
ever a champion of the established order of things. Here was a great
scholar and personality who chose to devote his life to the Arabian Penin-
sula when so many smoother and conventional courses were open to him.
Why did he do this? The answer is not hard to find. He did it because
he wanted to and because he was prepared to take the risk of failure.
More than that, he had the courage of his own convictions. He was gentle
and ruthless, kind and unassailably dogmatic. He could not suffer sen-
sationalism and amateurism in exploration but he would go out of his way
to encourage the younger generation bent on entering his own precious
preserves where his authority had been paramount for over a quarter of
a century. He was at equal ease in the bosom of his family in Maida Vale,
Camberley, or the Welsh mountains as he was discussing business with
Rolls-Royce at the Farnborough air show, conferring with friends at the
Athenaeum, stirring up the social circle in Jeddah or discussing state finance
with the King in the palace at Riyadh.
If we can single out one attribute in particular it was his ability to
combine scholarship with his vast pioneer explorations. He might well
concede, as he did some years ago, his laurels to another, but history will
show that St. John Philby has secured his place as the master of Arabian
exploration of all time.
 12 INMEMORIAM

SIR WILLIAM HOUSTOUN-BOSWALL, K.C.M.G., M.C.

T
HE death of Sir William Houstoun-Boswall at the age of 67 is a
sad blow to his friends all over the world.
William Evelyn Houstoun-Boswall was born in 1892. After an
education at Wellington and New College, Oxford, he served in the First
World War in the Black Watch. He was mentioned in despatches and
was awarded the M.C. and the Croix de Guerre. Like so many of his
contemporaries, the peace found him with no occupation, a wealth of
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human experience and no particular ambitions. Fortunately someone sug-

gested the Diplomatic Service to him and in 1921 he entered under the
" reconstruction examination " of the time. The Service cannot have re-
gretted his selection. He was appointed C.M.G. in 1942 and created
K.C.M.G. in 1949.
" Houstie-Boo," as he was always known to his friends, saw a wide
range of posts—Madrid, Paris, The Hague, Lisbon, Budapest, Oslo, Bagh-
dad and Tokyo. As a Second Secretary he was seconded to the Dominions
Office and served from 1929 to 1932 on the staff of the High Commissioner
at Pretoria (which, he always maintained, was the happiest time of his
life) and later, in 1944, he served under the Resident Minister in West
Africa. His greatest years, however, were as political representative in
Bulgaria from 1944 to 1946 and as Minister at Beirut from 1947 to 1951,
when he retired. It is not too much to say that only someone with his
particular qualities could have survived in post-war Sofia. In conditions
of considerable physical discomfort, if not of physical danger, only the in-
domitable spirit of a Houstoun-Boswall could meet the challenge of the
Soviet military authorities and their zealous Bulgarian protégés. By con-
trast, the Legation at Beirut was the calm sunset evening of a long and
useful career. The newly independent republic of the Lebanon had its
problems, of course, but these were not such as to daunt a veteran of
Houstie-Boo's stamp. As his country's representative he almost tangibly
radiated good humour, imperturbability and commonsense. He was never
what used to be called an " intellectual," but he was a shrewd judge of
men and his boisterous, country-gentleman manner was a cover for great
resources—insight, political " know-how " and hardly-won experience. His
human sympathy, spiced with a characteristically military sense of discip-
line, made him not only respected, but loved, by all who had the luck to
serve with him.
A. S. H.

CAPTAIN SIR VYVYAN HOLT, K.B.E., C.M.G., M.V.O.

(Died July 2, i960. He was a member of the Society since 1922)

I
N Beyond Euphrates Miss Freya Stark wrote of Vyvyan Holt some
ten years ago " He was the most modest man I have ever known, with
a fund of natural and unselfish goodness. . . ." It is almost impossible
in an obituary notice to improve on that short, but sincere, tribute. Those
 IN MEMORIAM 13
of us who had the privilege of working with Vyvyan Holt had wide and
constant experience of its truth. So far as I know, he never even contem-
plated writing a book about the Middle East. Perhaps the incessant draft-
ing of official despatches, telegrams and memoranda in that large, sprawl-
ing hand of his, inhibited him from private composition. But I am sure
that even the pale publicity which authorship confers would have embar-
rassed him and he would never have believed that his own personal ex-
periences and opinions could have the slightest interest for anyone else.
It was entirely characteristic of him that when, after more than two years'
detention in North Korea, he arrived in West Berlin and was besieged
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by journalists for a story, he was genuinely surprised that he was in the

news at all and, far from taking the opportunity to enjoy the sympathetic
plaudits of the Free World, declined to say anything then, since it would
be improper to do so before reporting to the Secretary of State I
Vyvyan Holt was born in 1896. He was swept into the 1914-18 war
(he served with the 9th Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment and later with
the Indian Signals and the North-West Frontier Intelligence Corps) and
this was to be decisive for the rest of his life. As a reserve officer, he
always cherished his link with the Army. When I first met him in the
summer of 1939 he was in uniform and secretly hoping that he would be
allowed to take part in the coming war as a soldier. 1919 found him with
the Political Service in Iraq and to Iraq he was to give the best years of
his life as A.D.C. and P.S. in the High Commission, and Oriental Secre-
tary and Counsellor in the Embassy. He served in Baghdad until 1946
when he should have got to Tabriz as Consul-General, but the war in
Azerbaijan frustrated this move and he was soon back at his old work
as Oriental Counsellor, but this time in Tehran. He had been little more
than a year in Seoul (his first independent post) when he was marched
away into captivity in the North. From 1954 he served as Minister in
El Salvador until he retired from the Foreign Service in 1956. He became
M.V.O. in 1933, C.M.G. in 1939 and was created K.B.E. in 1956.
Vyvyan Holt's knowledge of the Middle East can only be described
as stupendous. He had the most extraordinary ability in acquiring foreign
languages and learnt them as a hobby, though some of us used to feel that it
was more a kind of penance. (In Seoul, at the age of 53, he at once
tackled the complexities of Korean.) But more important than his skill
in talking Arabic, Persian, Kurdish, Turkish or Russian was his intimate
knowledge of all the people who had made the history of the Middle East
from 1919 onwards. This bottomless well of knowledge and experience
was invaluable to his juniors and his superiors alike. His single-minded
devotion to his chosen work left him little time for mundane pleasures.
His spartan asceticism was of a terrifying gauntness. He worked sixteen
hours a day. His only relaxation was polo which he played with passionate
enthusiasm. His physical courage was monolithic; there was an episode with
Sheikh Ahmad of Barzan (the elder brother of the now notorious Mulla
Mustafa) in 1932 which for cold-blooded bravery could hardly be bettered.
During his last years in Baghdad, Vyvyan lived in the Embassy in self-
imposed conditions of austerity which were a constant reminder of the
sternness of the world conflict which was raging about us. But through
 14 IN MEMORIAM
it all flowed that vein of " natural and unselfish goodness " of which Miss
Stark speaks and which suffused with a rich humanity his awe-inspiring
manner and appearance. His death, so soon after retirement from active
service, is a sad loss to all those who knew him in the Middle East and
counted on his help and advice for a long time to come.
A. S. H.

NICHOLAS FITZMAURICE, C.I.E.

M
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R. NICHOLAS FITZMAURICE, C.I.E., a member of the So-

ciety since 1931, died in Fleet, Hampshire, on July 7, i960. Born
in 1887, he was appointed a Student Interpreter at Peking in 1908.
In the course of extensive service in H.M. Consular Service in China he
was twice stationed in Sinkiang, actually at Kashgar, in a junior capacity
from 1919 to 1922, and with the rank of Consul-General from 1931 to
1934. In the latter year, his valuable experience of Chinese Turkestan, par-
ticularly in connection with the interests of the Government of India, was
recognized by the award of die C.I.E. He retired on pension in 1943.
L. H. L.

CAPTAIN W. J. FARRELL, C.M.G., O.B.E., M.C.

Sir Patrick Coghill writes :

C
APTAIN W. J. FARRELL, C.M.G., O.B.E., M.C, late of
"Tibar," Castle Townshend, Co. Cork, Ireland, died on July 2,
i960. He was a member since 1922.
Classical scholar and Research Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge, he
was an Assistant Master at Rugby and Haileybury until he joined the Royal
Field Artillery in 1915. After a brief period in France, he served with the
Intelligence Corps in Egypt, Iraq and Trans-Caucasia, where he was
awarded die M.C.
From 1919-1922 he was employed in the Education Department of the
Iraq Government. Thence he went to the Education Department of the
Government of Palestine, where he remained until he retired in 1946. He
was Director of Education for the last ten years of his service there. He
received the O.B.E. in 1936 and die C.M.G. in 1946.
His work in die Education Department of Palestine can justly be said
to be the most enduring legacy of the Mandate, as die influence of his
methods of teaching has spread throughout the Arab world through the
work of teachers trained under him.