Gertrude Bell Gertrude Bell was born in the home of her grandfather, Sir Isaac Lowthian Bell.

He lived in Washington.

A boy died while was cleaning Sir Isaac’s chimney in1872 later a law said that all children
under the age of ten had to go to school.

His father Hugh bel inherited Sir Isaac’s factories and fortune after his father’s dead. He was
concerned about the well-being of the people. Her mother gave both to her brother, Maurice,
but then died a few days later.

Ada hated the black smoke from the factories which filled the air and hid the sun.Florence and
Hugh were married. Florence introduced Gertrude to the fashions and manners of Paris
Society; she thought girls should have governesses at home.

The young girl was extremely bright, enjoyed studying and read all the books in the house.
Governesses came to the family home to teach Gertrude. She loved exploring the grounds of
the house and the surrounding countryside, taking Maurice (her brother) with her. Florence
recognized that Gertrude knew more than any governesses they could hire for her; she agreed
that Gertrude must be sent to a girls school in London.

Gertrude want to Queen’s College in London, she enjoyed learning poetry and was an excellent
student at history. Her teachers recommended she continue her studies at Oxford University.

First, the male students and teachers ignored Gertrude. The head, John Burgon, gave a sermon
about women saying: “Inferior to us God made you, and inferior to the end of time you will
remain”.However, when Gertrude took part in college debates the male student’s quickly
realized that she was clearly oneof the most brilliant students at Oxford. She made friends with
two other women studying at the university, Mary Talbot, and Janet Hogarth, whose older
brother, David was a renowned archeologist.

David Hogart later became the head of British intelligence in the Middle East and had a
serious influence on Gertrude’s life.Gertrude studied hard, finishing three years of history
studies in just two years. Her hard work was rewarded when she became the first woman to
earn first-class honors in modern history at Oxford.

Florence bell and Gertrude’s aunt should learn more about polite manners in order to succeed
in life. They believed the most important thing for a young woman was to find a suitable
husband and to learn how to mix in high society.

Gertrude was sent to Romania to stay with her aunt and Uncle Frank and Mary Lascelles. Frank
was a British diplomat and Mary invented many foreign diplomats to their home. Gertrude
enjoyed dancing with uniformed officers at balls.

Valentine Ignatius was a foreign correspondent for the times newspaper.After her stay in
Romania, Florence and Hugh decide that Gertrude was ready to be properly introduced into
London society.

She was presented to Queen Victoria and then she spent three years doing everything a
society lady. She visited fashionable ladies during the days, and danced with eligible young
men at balls every evening. However, Gertrude had a different view of the world than most
young women.

Having always preferred to talk politics with men and discuss fashions or domestic matters
with women. Gertrude wanted to be one of the people who travelled around the world and
made a difference, not a woman inpolite London society. Frank Lascelles became the British
ambassador in Turkish and Gertrude immediately started to learn Persian.

In Turkish a Gertrude met Henry Cadogan and fell in love. He even read Persian Poetry to her.
She developed a passion for photography. Her parent refused to let her marry Cadogan. His
family was not wealthy enough, and worse, he was known to have lost money gambling. A few
months later Gertrude received a telegram saying that Cadogan, the love of her life, had
died .He had fallen into a cold river while fishing and died of pneumonia a few weeks later.

Gertrude went walking, cycling and climbing with her father into the French Alps. At that time,
there we very serious women climbers and no proper mountaineering clothes for them. She
had a blue climbing suit made for her.Gertrude climbed many other mountains and became
quite famous mountaineer. She climbed some peaks that nobody had ever reached, and they
were named after her. One of the snowstorms started and the three mountains held on to a
rope hanging of a high cliff for over 50 hours.

Gertrude suffered from serious frostbite on her feet and hands. But even this didn’t kill her
desire for adventure. During a visit to Greece with her father, Gertrude met David Hogarst and
her awakening another new passion, the archology.

This new interest and meeting Hogart was to change her future. When British discovered that
there maybe is oil in the Middle East, they started to become very interested on the area. The
British needed to gain control on important area of the world. To this, they would need to
persuade the Arab tribes living in the deserts to help the fight the Turks. David Hogart was
working for British intelligence and he convinced his superiors that Gertrude Bell could be very
used to the m. Gertrude enter the desert areas to study the ruins from ancient civilizations.

She would be “the ideal spy”. She needed to learn like drawing precise maps and deeper
knowledge of archeology to give her a legitimate reason to explore the deserts. She loved felt
free, because she could go wherever she wanted whenever she felt like it, without a
chaperone. Once Gertrude felt confident speaking Arabic, she started to hire guides and make
small day trips from Jerusalem to visit her friends Nina and Friedrich Rosen on horseback. In
1902 Gertrude traveled to Paris to study archeologist with Professor Salomon Reinach to leat
to draw accurate maps . With this new skills , and her fluent knowledge of Arabic , Gertrude
was ready to supply the British Government with accurate maps .

Thorough the next 12 years, Gertrude travelled thousands of kilometers over mountains to
supply vital informationto the British Government .The Turks accepted Gertrude as a genuine
archaeologist and often supplied her with soldier fort her protection. From these photographs,
and her accurate maps the British knew that the German railways were nearly completed.

Gertrude won the Sheik’s respect by her intelligence and knowledge of Arab culture and
language. Gertrude recited Arabic poems by heart. Arab Sheiks and gossiped with their wives,
who lived separately form the mend, in tents called harems. Their eat sheep’s eyes and goat
meat.

On her Return he fell deeply in love with Charles Dought –Wylie but he had recently married.
Gertrude continued to express her love in her letters: When she returned she published
several books.( The Tousands and One Churches).
1911: Gertrude met with T.E. Lawrence , knows as Lawrence of Arabia . He and Gertrude
talking about the Bedouin tribes and they would decide which Arab leaders would become
kings of newly formed countries .

In 1912 Charles was sent to Turkey once more and met Gertrude again (could do nothing
about the love) and Gertrude retourn to Britain .

JANUARY 1913: She was given an award by the Royal Geographical Society , in recognition of
her explorations and travel books.

NOVEMBER 1913: Gertrude set off on a camel , with many servants and animals , for her most
important and dangerous desert journey ever – to Hayyil , in Arabia.She wanted to impress
Charles trying a joursent to Hayyil in Arabia (she wrote a book describing the experience).

The brith Government wanted information on the area, they didn´t approve of his expedition
because it was soo dangerous .

There were several Bedouin tribes in the area , but two larges ones were at war with with each
other .

-The Shammar : who lived around Hayyil , were loyal to Sheikh Ibn al Rashid.

-The al-Saud tribe : who ruled the area around Riyahd , were loyal to Ibn Saud.

When Gertrude finally reached Hayyil , she sent her servants ahead with gifts of robes and
silks for Sheikh Ibn al Rashid . But then three of the Sheikh´s men rode out to meet her ,
returning the gifts .

They arrested Gertrud and held her as a prisoner for two weeks. Rashid has Good reason to be
suspicious of Gertrude , as Britain was supplying arms to his enemy , the ferocius Ibn Saud , in
return for his support against the Turks.

Gertrude persuade Ibrahim (he advisor of the Sheikh) to let her go. (Sheikh had killed
Ibrahim).

When she returned she notice that Charles have been killed.She was sent to Baghdad later,
where she satyyed writing intelligence reports for most of the war. After the war, Britain held
poer over Mesopaotamia. The British Goverment kept Gertrude in Baghdad as chief
intelligence officer . It was extraordinary for any woman to hold such position .

The British decided they wanted to pull ther 40,000 troops from the area, they had cost
Beritan over 35 millon a year and it was expensive to stay .

He argued tahth independent Arab Emirates should be established thorught the Middle East
and Gertrude supported this . Gertrude was the fisrt time in write a write paper from the
conference of Winston Churchill. Gretrude arrived at the Cairo conference in 1921 carrying
maps , proposing borders for the countries they were creating.

Gertrude became the “uncrowned Queen of Iraq´´ and was acknowledged as the most
powerful woman in the British Empire .
Gertrude continued to work in archeology to distract herself from these problems. She started
become depressed and lonely , at the age of 58 she toolk a faltal dose of sleeping pills and
died, She wars buried in Baghdad.