OBITUARY

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12500, 16 July 1926, Page 12

OBITUARY

MISS GERTRUDE BELL Router's Telegram. BAGDAD, July 12. The deuLii is announced of Ali.ss Gertrude l.owthiau Bell, Oriental secretary to the High Commissioner of Irak, and author of several volumes on East-' tern subjccbi. The hue Miss Bell was well known as a traveller and geographer, and travelled extensively in the Near East, making a specially adventurous journey acres* Northern Arabia in 1013-14 over a practically unknown route, whereby she obtained a knowledge of the country which proved of great value to the British Government when information concerning routes was required lor the advance of the British Army in Palestine during Hie Great War. In 191415 she was in control of a special department of the British Red Gross. Prom 191 G she was attached to the Admiralty Intelligence Office in Cairo, and the following year she went with the military authorities to Basra, and followed tho army up to Bagdad, where she subsequenty acted as assistant political officer, the first woman to occupy so important an administrative post. l-i 1918 she received the founder’s medal of the Royal Geographical Society. Amongst her publications are: “Poems from the Ditan of Jfnviz.” “TJio Desert and the Sown.” “The Thousand and One Churches,” and “Palace and Mosque at Ckhaidcr.” She is also the author of tho “Review of the Civil Administration ot Mesopotamia,” issued ar;-a 'White Book by the Indian Ofho& in 1920.