William Shakespear (explorer)
William Henry Irvine Shakespear | |
|---|---|
| Born | 29 October, 1878 |
| Died | 24 January, 1915 |
Captain William Henry Irvine Shakespear (29 October 1878 - 24 January 1915), was an English civil servant and explorer who peoples genitals of Northern Arabia and made the first official British contact with Ibn Sa'ud, future king of Saudi Arabia. He was the military adviser to Ibn Saud from 1910 to 1915, when he died in the Battle of Jarrab, against Ibn Rashid.
Early life
He was born in Bombay as son of William Henry Sulivan Shakespear and Annie Caroline Davidson, educated at Portsmouth Grammer School and King William's College, Isle of Man. Joined Royal Military College, Sandhurst, 19 Aug 1896. 2nd Lieut 22 Jan 1898. Devonshire Regt. 17th Bengal Cavalry 1899. He then joined the Indian Political Department. In 1904 he joined the British Foreign Office and became the youngest vice-consul in British India. He was transferred to Kuwait. From 1909 on he was the British Political Agent in Kuwait, subordinated to the respective agent in Bahrain. Shakespear was a great linguist who spoke Urdu, Pushtu, Persian and Arabic fluently.
Arabian expeditions
While in Kuwait, Shakespear made seven separate expeditions into the Arabian interior, during which he became a close friend of Ibn Sa'ud, then the Emir of The Nejd. On March, 1914 Shakespear began a 1,800 mile journey from Kuwait to Riyadh and on to Aqaba, via the Nafud Desert, which he mapped and studied in great detail, the first European to do so. In November, 1914, the British government in India asked Shakespear to secure Ibn Sa'ud's support for the British-Indian Mesopotamian Expeditionary Force, which had just taken Basra.
Death
In January, 1915, at the Battle of Jarrab, Shakespear's friend Ibn Sa'ud asked him to retreat to a place of safety before the fighting began. As an English gentleman, he naturally declined to do so. He was struck by a bullet and killed. The victorious Rashidis cut off his head. His solar helmet was handed over to the Ottoman authorities and hung on one of the main gates of Medina as proof of the Al Sau'ds' collaboration with the British.
Aftermath
It has been suggested by some authorities, notably St. John Philby, that the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire might have been very differently directed if Shakespear had survived, i.e. the British would have supported and armed Ibn Sa'ud rather than Sherif Hussein ibn Ali.
"His death... was a great loss to his country, but it was a disaster to the Arab cause. It must certainly be reckoned in the small category of individual events which have changed the course of history. Had he survived to continue a work for which he was so eminently suited, it is extremely doubtful whether subsequent campaigns of Lawrence would ever have taken place in the west..."
Arabia, H. St. John Philby, London (1930), pp 233 - 234.
Literature
- H.V. F. Winstone: Captain Shakespear : a Portrait, 1976 ISBN 0 224 01194 4
- Zahra Freeth and H. V. F. Winstone: Explorers of Arabia : from the Renaissance to the end of the Victorian era, London [et al.] : Allen & Unwin, 1978 ISBN 0 04 953009 7
- Charles Allen (writer): God's Terrorists : the Wahhabi Cult and the Hidden Roots of Modern Jihad, Londen : Little Brown, 2006 ISBN 0 349 11879 5
External links
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (June 2008) |
- Biography, with a picture.
- The Captain and the King, from Saudi Aramco World.
- Notes by the biographer Harry Victor F. Winstone and David Wingate on a Shakespeare Family Genealogical Site
- Memorial Stone