Gertrude Bell

Gertrude Bell was a British traveller, archaeologist, writer and political officer whose knowledge of the Middle East made her an influential adviser during and after the First World War. She travelled widely in the Ottoman provinces, learned Arabic and developed relationships with tribal and urban elites.

After the British conquest of Mesopotamia Bell worked in the administration that helped create the modern state of Iraq and supported the installation of Faisal I as king. She also helped establish the Iraq Museum and became closely associated with British imperial policy in the region.

Ian Rutledge’s Enemy on the Euphrates brings figures including Arnold Wilson, Gertrude Bell, T. E. Lawrence, Mark Sykes and Winston Churchill into the same political story, showing how direct occupation gave way to a British-backed Iraqi monarchy. Rutledge also traces the use of Indian troops, aircraft, armoured trains and river gunboats against the insurgency and explains how the settlement imposed after the First World War influenced the later Iraqi state.