Gertrude Bell (1868-1926) - Explorer of Arabia, Asia. Archaeologist. Writer. Spy. This women was instrumental in setting up the Hashemite Kingdoms in Jordan and Iraq (although in Iraq the system did not last; Jordan is still under Hashemite rule). She worked with TE Lawrence (in the photograph as well). She is “one of the few representatives of His Majesty’s Government remembered by the Arabs with anything resembling affection.” She was an honorary secretary of the British Women’s Anti-Suffrage League. Liaison Officer, Correspondent to Cairo; Oriental Secretary to Baghdad; member of the Orientalists convened by Churchill to attend a 1921 Conference in Cairo on the boundaries of the British Mandate; served on the Iraq British High Commission advisory group; al-Khatun; confidante of Iraqi King Faisal; founder of Iraqi Archaeological Museum and the British School of Archaeology; awarded Order of the British Empire. She wrote works such as Persian Pictures and Syria: The Desert and the Sown.

Plus, she had red hair and blue-green eyes.

I’m so glad I had an Arabic assignment about her!