I read extensively about Gertrude Bell while researching my Bachelor’s thesis. There was something haunting about her passion, and though I ultimately took my research in another direction, I feel confident beginning my blogging journey with her. For the record, I know Queen of the Desert was released in 2015—apparently while I was deep in my research. At the time, I was living in Italy and never actually saw it. I could blame the fact that these days, I mostly watch whatever is on Disney+, but the truth is, I have a deep-seated phobia of most historical dramas. I’ve become an accurarist (I admit it).
Adolescent and Education.
Gertrude Margaret Lowthian Bell was born in Washington Hall, England 1868. Her grandfather, Lowthian Bell, was a well-respected sage of industrial metallurgy as one of the founding brothers of Bell Brothers Ironworks. He didn’t just possess part ownership of the company. His scientific acumen drove it forward. Gertrude lived her early life as the well-to-do granddaughter of a baronet (a hereditary title that doesn’t come with membership to the peerage like the title of Baron would for the rest of us). Her family owned iron, steel, and aluminum works throughout Britain. Gertrude’s letters between her stepmother, father, and siblings provide a glimpse into an affectionate family. Belle wrote many letters to her stepmother, including an assurance that she didn’t think that her pet ravens would not peck Florence just before her and Hugh Bell’s wedding.1 Another letter to her soon to be mother detailed her cats Mopsa and Kitty Scott.
At fifteen, she was sent to London to attend classes at Queen’s College. Her stepmother had a connection there. At Queen’s College, her history professor encouraged her to go to Oxford. At seventeen, Gertrude asked her father if she could attend Oxford. Her schoolmate later remembered in her obituary that she was, up to that point, unused to obstacles, so he must not have put up much of a fight, if any. However, it was then noted that obstacles had a way of fading away when dashing against Gertrude.2 In 1888, she achieved first-class honors in history after only two years at Oxford. She wasn’t allowed to receive a degree as a woman, but she could take the test. The following year, a friend noted that a male Oxford alumni was sure to notify them that Bell, standing a short distance away, had “taken first in history.”3 Did that individual also test for history that year and achieve a degree despite receiving a lower grade than her? We will never know.
Gertrude spent the winter of 1888–1889 in Bucharest with her aunt and uncle, Mary and Frank Lascelles. The latter was serving as the British minister to Romania at the time. The visit must have gone well, as after he was appointed minister to Tehran in 1891, the Lascelles accepted Gertrude’s request to join her Aunt Mary on her journey east to Persia.
A Little History
This is a good time to speak to imperialism. The topic will come up often in my blog, but to be fair to talk about history without imperialism is kind of like making a sandwich without the bread.
British Imperialism on the Ground
– Over five million people died in India between 1876 and 1878 due to famine. Meanwhile, the British imperial government’s refusal to abandon laissez-faire economics—coupled with blatant apathy—allowed the continued export of grain from India, even as millions starved. Unequal trade policies, which dictated what could and could not be exported, and the steady depletion of the subcontinent’s resources enriched Britain while economically crippling India.
– Throughout 1879, the British waged war with the Zulu people of South Africa, resulting in the disintegration of the Zulu Kingdom. Then, the neighboring Boers, a people of Dutch descent who had established independent republics in the Transvaal and Orange Free State, soon found themselves in conflict with the British as well. In 1880, tensions erupted into the First Boer War, where the Boers handed the British a resounding defeat. However, Britain’s continued interest in the region—especially after the discovery of gold and diamonds—ensured that they would return.
– In September 1879 a British minister named Sir Louis Cavagnari had been murdered in Kabul. The British, seeking to expand their influence over Afghanistan—a region where they had disastrously failed to take control decades earlier—in order to secure their Indian frontier against Russian expansion, maneuvered Cavagnari into Kabul as their envoy. Cavagnari’s murder alongside his entire staff resulted in the second British invasion of Afghanistan.
– In 1885, the Third invasion of Burma led to the fall of the Burmese monarchy and the beginning of British colonial rule over what is now Myanmar. One of the first actions taken by the British occupiers was the destruction of genealogical records, which had traced Burmese royal lineage back for centuries.
– For additional context, China had been defeated in both Opium Wars, which spanned two decades from 1839 to 1860. The Qing government tried to ban opium. British and imperial traders, with vast stockpiles to offload, refused to comply. The British fought to keep their market open—even at the cost of a nation’s suffering.
- Some of you may have heard the claim that everyone was using opium in the early twentieth century. The reality? Not exactly. In the West, the more common substance was laudanum—a tincture of opium dissolved in alcohol—used both medicinally and recreationally. While laudanum and opium come from the same poppy, laudanum is only about one-tenth as potent as raw opium. Both were dangerous drugs—but one was ten times more so than the other.
- Once again, laissez-faire economics reared its ugly head. Had the British government intervened, their opium-laden merchants would have faced financial ruin—an outcome the government was never willing to risk.
The Machinery of Empire
– In 1869, upon the completion of the Suez Canal, the distance between India and Britain was effectively halved. The canal revolutionized global trade, confirming what had already been proven in 1846—that all oceans and seas were at the same height. Initially, the British resisted what they saw as a post-Napoleonic French attempt to reassert influence over Egypt, but the French-financed venture moved forward regardless.4 Then, just six years after the canal’s completion, Egypt’s bankrupt ruler was forced to sell his fifty-percent share, allowing British Prime Minister Disraeli to secure control over one of the world’s most strategic waterways. Though the French retained majority ownership, British forces invaded Egypt in 1882, seizing physical control of the canal and ensuring British dominance over its operations for decades.
· Too much imperialism in one go? I had to set the scene. And for those who think I left too much out—let’s be honest, there’s no shortage of Western imperialism to choose from. But how did the British Empire achieve its global push? Gunboats, railways, cannons. The tools of empire, all forged from iron and steel. And behind that iron and steel? Metallurgical firms like Bell Brothers Ironworks, fueling the machinery of conquest, one furnace at a time.
Tehran
Oh wait, there is more; it would be misguided not to speak a little about economic policies and more on iron. I’ll follow that in my next blog post. Gertrude Bell arrived in Tehran on May 29, 1892. That same year, Lord Curzon released Persia and the Persian Question, a two-volume work in which he argued that Persia should serve as a buffer state between British India and Russia. Afghanistan as a buffer wasn’t enough. In essence, he advocated for British control over Persia—before the Russians could take it first.
Persia would forever change Bell’s life, igniting her passion for the Middle East and setting her on a path that would define her legacy. The privileged, carefree daughter of empire found herself immersed in the ruins of ancient civilizations, wandering landscapes that had sheltered and inspired an unbroken chronicle of indomitable voices—echoing through every bazaar and ruin. Here, she became proficient in a language that had endured in its present form since the Golden Age of Islam.
Highlighted further readings:
1. Brendon, Piers. The Decline and Fall of the British Empire. New York.: Random House, 2007.
- I was so excited to get to pull out this book. I knew from the beginning that I couldn’t speak to Gertrude Bell’s story without acknowledging the other significant currents at play
1. Newcastle University’s The Gertrude Bell Archives – Digital humanist who digitize works for archives are the real heroes. https://gertrudebell.ncl.ac.uk
2. The Brown Book: The Lady Margaret Hall Chronicle 1924-1927. Lady Margaret Hall, n.d. https://lady-margaret-hall.epexio.com/records/LMHA/PUB/1/5.
- I couldn’t find out for certain who wrote Gertrude Bell’s eulogy (or the date it was written for that matter), in The Brown Book, but the fact that Lady Margaret Hall’s allowing access to its archives for research purposes is also commiserate in Digital Historian values.
[1] Bell, Gertrude. “Letter from Gertrude Bell to Her Stepmother, Dame Florence Bell.” Gertrude Bell Archive. Jun 1886. https://gertrudebell.ncl.ac.uk/l/gb-1-1-1-1-2-2.
[2] The Brown Book: The Lady Margaret Hall Chronicle 1924-1927. Lady Margaret Hall, n.d. https://lady-margaret-hall.epexio.com/records/LMHA/PUB/1/5. 57.
[3] Bell, Gertrude. “Letter from Gertrude Bell to Her Stepmother, Dame Florence Bell.” Gertrude Bell Archive. July 3, 1889. https://gertrudebell.ncl.ac.uk/l/gb-1-1-1-1-2-2.
[4] Brendon, Piers. The Decline and Fall of the British Empire. New York.: Random House, 2007. 147.