Bertram Thomas
Bertram Thomas (June 13, 1892 – December 27, 1950) was an English civil servant who is the first documented Westerner to cross the Rub’ al Khali (Empty Quarter). He was also a scientist who practiced craniofacial anthropometry,
He was born in Pill near Bristol and educated at Trinity College, Cambridge. After working for the Civil Service, he served in Belgium during World War I before being posted to the Somerset Light Infantry in Mesopotamia (now Iraq) between 1916 and 1918. He worked as an Assistant Political Officer in this country from 1918 to 1922, and Assistant British Representative in Transjordan (now Jordan), from 1922 to 1924. He was appointed as Finance Minister and Wazir to the Sultan of Muscat and Oman (now Oman), a post he held from 1925 to 1932. In this capacity, he undertook a number of expeditions into the desert, and became the first European to cross the Rub’ Al Khali from 1930 and 1931, a journey he described in Arabia Felix (1932), in which he described this desert’s animals, inhabitants, and culture.
He was awarded the OBE in 1920 and CMG in 1949.
A recent film called ‘Crossing the Empty Quarter’ was created by the Anglo-Oman Society’s Chairman, Richard Muir - the ex-Ambassador to Oman - from footage taken by Thomas on his journey, and photographs from the Library of the Oriental Institute in Cambridge.
He returned to England and died in the house in which he was born, in 1950.
References
- ^ Explore Saudi Arabia. “Bertram Thomas 1892-1950.” September 26, 2007.
- ^ Ure, John. “Thomas, Bertram Sidney”. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved on 2008-08-07.
- ^ a b c “BT Bertram Sidney Thomas (1892-1950), Explorer”. Faculty of Asian & Middle Eastern Studies. University of Cambridge. Retrieved on 2008-08-07.
- ^ “Archive collections in the oriental studies faculty library”. Canmbridge University libraries information bulletin. University of Cambridge (2003). Retrieved on 2008-08-07.
- ^ “The Forgotten Explorer”. Braod view Newsletter. University of East Anglia (March 2004). Retrieved on 2008-08-07.