‘Many members will be aware that today (12th July) 2026 is the 100th anniversary of the death of Gertrude Bell. We were alerted to this by Zeva Oelbaum & Sabine Krayenbühl, the producers of the excellent Letters from Baghdad. It was then suggested by Society member, Dr Roger Shelley that we might produce a special Journal edition which combined previous articles about Gertrude Bell. With the support of Joe Berton and Martin Gething, Lorraine Tinsley, author of The Uncrowned King and the Desert Queen, took on the task.
Lorraine has written an excellent introduction and suggested further readings. Huge thanks go to Journal editors Nynke Hartvelt and Susan Purver who have done a huge amount of work to prepare this special online Journal in such a short time. Phillip Bell, our webmaster, has also done a huge amount of work in preparing the website and combining the documents ready to go live today to mark the anniversary for which we are truly grateful. We thank the original authors of the articles and hope that you will enjoy this special edition and tribute to Gertrude Bell.’
