Gertrude Bell - Britain’s ’Queen of the Desert’
▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQjX1QFcvII
Gertrude Bell was a global adventurer, linguist, spy, archaeologist, and much more. She was responsible for defining the borders of modern-day Iraq, and founded the country’s first museum. However, her own family home in Redcar has fallen into disrepair. Activists are now fighting for the building to be preserved in her memory. ITV News Correspondent Emma Murphy reports.
Gertrude Bell
▻https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gertrude_Bell
Gertrude Margaret Lowthian Bell, CBE (14 July 1868 – 12 July 1926) was an English writer, traveller, political officer, administrator, and archaeologist[2] who explored, mapped, and became highly influential to British imperial policy-making due to her knowledge and contacts, built up through extensive travels in Syria-Palestine, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, and Arabia.[3] Along with T. E. Lawrence, Bell helped support the Hashemite dynasties in what is today Jordan as well as in Iraq.
She played a major role in establishing and helping administer the modern state of Iraq, using her unique perspective from her travels and relations with tribal leaders throughout the Middle East. During her lifetime she was highly esteemed and trusted by British officials and exerted an immense amount of power. She has been described as “one of the few representatives of His Majesty’s Government remembered by the Arabs with anything resembling affection”. 