Apologies from Val, Dorothy, Iris and Eric who could not make it. We all wish Eric a speedily return to health. Our regulars were a little bit short for us to take Peters challenging quiz on general history but I am sure we will be prepared for our next meeting. We had several contributions to our meeting starting off with a talk by John on the life of Gertude Bell. Gertude Bell is currently a topic at the Hancock Museum and her exhibition is on until Tuesday 3 May. For those of you who can not make it we will post Johns small contribution later on in this blog; when he read it out we were quite surprised by some of the things he had found out.
Joan mentioned The parish Church of St Mary & St Cuthbert at Chester-le-Street and the visit she had there to look at a copy of the Lindisfarne Gosbels. We all agreed that this should be one of our spring - summer outings but if you are interested in going in the near future you can find more information on the following web site:
We were again amazed at how Newcastle City Learning could come up with some of the ridiculous payment schemes for courses. Several of our members were paying different prices for courses. Even though they were receiving Pension Credits two of our members were paying different prices and when querying these prices were given conflicting information. It appears that some of our work in September has been ignored and we need to make it clear that front line staff should be make aware of funding and course provision details and that those details should be made consistent. Our advice until this gets sorted out is to make sure when you enrol for the next classes in Easter that you are getting the best deal in terms of concessions, ask them what concession you are entitled to and do not be put off by un helpful staff any inconsistencies should be reported either to us as a group or to Caroline Miller.
Devils Toenails
I brought along a curiosity which has more to do with Local Natural History than our normal local history but interesting enough to amuse us. It was a Devils Toenail which I collected on the beach at Recar, Teeside may years ago when I was a young lad interested in Geology.
The specimen I collected is about two and a half inches long by one and a half inches high but they come in all sort of sizes. They are not rare and I am sure you could beach combe the area and find them along the shore. So what is a Devils Toenail? Here is Wikipedia description:
Gryphaea, common name Devil's toenails, is a genus of extinct oysters, marine bivalve mollusks in the family Gryphaeidae.
These fossils range from the Triassic to the Tertiary periods, but are mostly restricted to the Triassic and Jurassic. Wikipedia
The Triassic period ran from 251 million to 199 million years ago and the Jurassic period ran from 199.6 to 145.5 million years ago. The Middle Jurassic of the Yorkshire Coast is probably where its origins are
around 170 million years ago . At that time the
ocean receded from this area. The region became a coastal area with
deltas, scrub and forest. The sandstones and mudstones formed in this
period contain plant remains and the traces of land animals as well as
marine fossils. Dinosaurs left their mark here too in the form of
footprints and the occasional bone.
Devils Toenails can be found all along the coast south of Recar, including Robin Hoods Bay and Whitby. You can buy them on Ebay for around £8 but there is nothing like finding one yourself.
Foking.com-John Bushby and Gordon Phillips
John and Caroline Bushby
Gordon Phillips
10 Minutes walk from where I lived for 5 years in Washington Village, is Washington Hall , near the
more famous Old Washington Hall.
On the wall of Washington Hall now divided into separate apartments is a plaque telling us that
Gertrude Bell, scholar, archaeologist, poet,mountaineer and gardner was born here. After my
stay in Washington that is all l knew about Gertrude Bell. This assignment has prompted me to
find out more. I now know that the short description on the plaque understates her achievements.
Start:
Gertrude Bell was born in 1868, at Washington Hall, Co Durham. Her grandfather was Sir Isaac
Lowthian Bell one of the most influential industrialists of the mid 19c. who played a large part in the
growth and development of Teeside. Gertrude was born into privilege and influence.
At the age of three her mother died following the birth of Gertrude’s brother Maurice. The family
moved to Barnes House in Redcar and five years later her father married again, into a family with
diplomatic contacts.
Gertrude was sent for private schooling to London and at 18 went up to one of the 2 colleges for
women at Oxford, Lady Margaret Hall. Noted for her independence of thought, after 2 years in
1888 she became the first woman to gain a first class honours degree in history at Oxford.
Over the next 10 Years her step - mother's ,brother- in- law, Sir Frank Lascelles had posts as British
Minister at the Embassies in Bucharest, Tehran, Berlin and Jerusalem. Gertrude Bell took
advantage to spend valuable holiday time in all four places. She studied Persian, Arabic and
German. Staying for a while in Baghdad, she discovered the wonders of Arabia at this time under
the Turkish Ottoman Empire, and nurtured a desire to travel the Arabian Desert. She learnt
Mountain climbing in the French and Swiss Albs, and would later earn the title of foremost woman
climber in the Alpine Journal 1901-03. At the time there was no special clothing for women
climbers. This did not deter Gertrude Bell, when climbing she just removed her skirt. In 1901 she
became the first person to climb all nine heights of the Engelhorner range in the Swiss Alps. One
mountain was name "Gertrudspitze" after her.
ln 1913 she returned to Damascus prepared with a caravan of helpers to explore the Desert. Her
journey would last over 4 months and included names, familiar to us today, Aleppo, Basra, Baghdad
and the Kurdish mountains that lay between Persia and Mesopotamia.
She learnt how to present herself to Arab sheiks, learnt the language, became an accomplished
archaeologist, cartographer, and photographer. She carried binoculars, and also a gun for self
protection hidden under her petticoat. Her wealth enabled her to bring gifts with her to present
to sheiks and tribal leaders on the way. She became known as Queen of the Desert able to
impress on occasion with lavish meals. A table would be laid out in the desert, covered with linen
tablecloth, silver candlesticks, wedgewood dinner set and crystal glasses.
Not wasting her time, she mapped some of the unknown desert, marking wells and unknown ruins,
invaluable information for the future.
At the outbreak of World War 1 with her fluency in French and German, she volunteered to work
with the Red Cross and was sent to France, later to be brought back to London to help reorganise
the Office of Identification.
In 1915, aware of her knowledge of the Middle East she was appointed to Military intelligence in
Cairo with the rank of Major - the first women officer in the history of British Intelligence. She
was then moved to Basra as Oriental Secretary to liaise between British and the Arabs and help in
the reorganisation of the Middle East following the defeat of the Turks by the British and Arabs
under Lawrence. In 1917 she was moved to Baghdad where she set up her home and took an
active part in organising education for women and girls, assuring the Arabs that Britain desired their
freedom and independence.
lt was in the immediate post war years that Gertrude Bell had her greatest influence. In 1920 she
produced a White Paper, the first woman to do so entitIed:"Review of Civil Administration of
Mesopotamia" it was applauded by both houses of Parliament.
She helped create the new state of lraq and define its boundaries with Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and
Turkey. She was influential in having her friend Faisal Hussein appointed 1st king and ruler. He
made her Director of Antiquities and it has been said "she deserves praise for having preserved the
remains of the "cradle of civilisation"
A Museum of Antiquities was created and King Faisal dedicated a room, the Gertrude Bell Room -
"whose memory the Arabs will ever hold in reverence and affection."
The Arabs gave Gertrude Bell the title ”Mother of the Faithful" — the last to have the title was
Mohammed’ s wife.
Along with King Faisal and TE Lawrence, leader of Arab rebels against the Turks, Miss Bell attended
the 1921 Peace Conference in Paris which endorsed the natural aspirations of the Arabs and the
establishment of National Government.
Amongst other awards Gertrude Bell was made a Companion of the British Empire and received the
Founder's Medal of the Royal Geographical Society.
She died in Bagdhad 1926, from a drugs overdose, no husband, alone, fed up, family fortune lost,
depressed.
She was given a full Military Funeral in the city attended by lraq and British High Commissioners and all their staff along with lraq and Arab Bedouin troops.
The story of Gertrude Bell is the story of first amongst women. lt may come as a surprise to know
that she was also a founder member of the Anti-suffragette movement. Women should educate
themselves and not make fools of themselves she said.
She had the beneļ¬t of privilege but it was a benefit she used with maximum effect. She had an
insatiable thirst for knowledge and experience and a great spirit of adventure and courage.
What she effected in the Middle East has had major impact on events there to this day. As
someone said ‘she must take some responsibility as the architect of an unstable Iraq in the middle
of an unstable Middle East.
A recent commentator says: Bell's biographers have generally ignored her intriguing combination of
creativity, honesty, intelligence and wrong headed idiocy in favour of celebrating her as a female
genius.
Sources: Encyclopaedia of N. East England by Richard Lomas
Gertrude Bell by Ann Talbot in Lives to Remember series 1958
A woman in the Desert by D Cowen 1967
The extraordinary life of G. Bell by James Buchan
The Queen of the Quaqmire. Rory Stewart 2007
Numerous references on the web.
Apart from books she herself wrote there are 16 volumes of letters including 1,600 to her parents in
the Newcastle University Library, and available on the University Web. www.gerty.nc|.ac.uk
Our next meeting will be in the upstairs cafe of the Hancock Musuem on Wednesday 9 March at 10:30am. Please bring yourselves along and bring with you any material you want to discuss.
The Square & Compass
Maureen told us about a music and Local History Project by John Bushby and Gordon Phillips called the Square and Compass which was the local name for the Freemasons Arms the only pub on St Mary's Island. John and Gordon have created a Folksong Cycle for St Mary's Island and its surrounds, North Tyneside which is available on CD. It comes with a little book giving a small history of the island and the lyrics to the folk songs. It has been described in the web site folking.com that John and Gordon were making songs out of small moments from history. To read the review of John and Gordon's work and see their web sites check out the links below:Foking.com-John Bushby and Gordon Phillips
John and Caroline Bushby
Gordon Phillips
Gertrude Bell
Assignment. G.Bell. March 2015 by John10 Minutes walk from where I lived for 5 years in Washington Village, is Washington Hall , near the
more famous Old Washington Hall.
On the wall of Washington Hall now divided into separate apartments is a plaque telling us that
Gertrude Bell, scholar, archaeologist, poet,mountaineer and gardner was born here. After my
stay in Washington that is all l knew about Gertrude Bell. This assignment has prompted me to
find out more. I now know that the short description on the plaque understates her achievements.
Start:
Gertrude Bell was born in 1868, at Washington Hall, Co Durham. Her grandfather was Sir Isaac
Lowthian Bell one of the most influential industrialists of the mid 19c. who played a large part in the
growth and development of Teeside. Gertrude was born into privilege and influence.
At the age of three her mother died following the birth of Gertrude’s brother Maurice. The family
moved to Barnes House in Redcar and five years later her father married again, into a family with
diplomatic contacts.
Gertrude was sent for private schooling to London and at 18 went up to one of the 2 colleges for
women at Oxford, Lady Margaret Hall. Noted for her independence of thought, after 2 years in
1888 she became the first woman to gain a first class honours degree in history at Oxford.
Over the next 10 Years her step - mother's ,brother- in- law, Sir Frank Lascelles had posts as British
Minister at the Embassies in Bucharest, Tehran, Berlin and Jerusalem. Gertrude Bell took
advantage to spend valuable holiday time in all four places. She studied Persian, Arabic and
German. Staying for a while in Baghdad, she discovered the wonders of Arabia at this time under
the Turkish Ottoman Empire, and nurtured a desire to travel the Arabian Desert. She learnt
Mountain climbing in the French and Swiss Albs, and would later earn the title of foremost woman
climber in the Alpine Journal 1901-03. At the time there was no special clothing for women
climbers. This did not deter Gertrude Bell, when climbing she just removed her skirt. In 1901 she
became the first person to climb all nine heights of the Engelhorner range in the Swiss Alps. One
mountain was name "Gertrudspitze" after her.
ln 1913 she returned to Damascus prepared with a caravan of helpers to explore the Desert. Her
journey would last over 4 months and included names, familiar to us today, Aleppo, Basra, Baghdad
and the Kurdish mountains that lay between Persia and Mesopotamia.
She learnt how to present herself to Arab sheiks, learnt the language, became an accomplished
archaeologist, cartographer, and photographer. She carried binoculars, and also a gun for self
protection hidden under her petticoat. Her wealth enabled her to bring gifts with her to present
to sheiks and tribal leaders on the way. She became known as Queen of the Desert able to
impress on occasion with lavish meals. A table would be laid out in the desert, covered with linen
tablecloth, silver candlesticks, wedgewood dinner set and crystal glasses.
Not wasting her time, she mapped some of the unknown desert, marking wells and unknown ruins,
invaluable information for the future.
At the outbreak of World War 1 with her fluency in French and German, she volunteered to work
with the Red Cross and was sent to France, later to be brought back to London to help reorganise
the Office of Identification.
In 1915, aware of her knowledge of the Middle East she was appointed to Military intelligence in
Cairo with the rank of Major - the first women officer in the history of British Intelligence. She
was then moved to Basra as Oriental Secretary to liaise between British and the Arabs and help in
the reorganisation of the Middle East following the defeat of the Turks by the British and Arabs
under Lawrence. In 1917 she was moved to Baghdad where she set up her home and took an
active part in organising education for women and girls, assuring the Arabs that Britain desired their
freedom and independence.
lt was in the immediate post war years that Gertrude Bell had her greatest influence. In 1920 she
produced a White Paper, the first woman to do so entitIed:"Review of Civil Administration of
Mesopotamia" it was applauded by both houses of Parliament.
She helped create the new state of lraq and define its boundaries with Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and
Turkey. She was influential in having her friend Faisal Hussein appointed 1st king and ruler. He
made her Director of Antiquities and it has been said "she deserves praise for having preserved the
remains of the "cradle of civilisation"
A Museum of Antiquities was created and King Faisal dedicated a room, the Gertrude Bell Room -
"whose memory the Arabs will ever hold in reverence and affection."
The Arabs gave Gertrude Bell the title ”Mother of the Faithful" — the last to have the title was
Mohammed’ s wife.
Along with King Faisal and TE Lawrence, leader of Arab rebels against the Turks, Miss Bell attended
the 1921 Peace Conference in Paris which endorsed the natural aspirations of the Arabs and the
establishment of National Government.
Amongst other awards Gertrude Bell was made a Companion of the British Empire and received the
Founder's Medal of the Royal Geographical Society.
She died in Bagdhad 1926, from a drugs overdose, no husband, alone, fed up, family fortune lost,
depressed.
She was given a full Military Funeral in the city attended by lraq and British High Commissioners and all their staff along with lraq and Arab Bedouin troops.
The story of Gertrude Bell is the story of first amongst women. lt may come as a surprise to know
that she was also a founder member of the Anti-suffragette movement. Women should educate
themselves and not make fools of themselves she said.
She had the beneļ¬t of privilege but it was a benefit she used with maximum effect. She had an
insatiable thirst for knowledge and experience and a great spirit of adventure and courage.
What she effected in the Middle East has had major impact on events there to this day. As
someone said ‘she must take some responsibility as the architect of an unstable Iraq in the middle
of an unstable Middle East.
A recent commentator says: Bell's biographers have generally ignored her intriguing combination of
creativity, honesty, intelligence and wrong headed idiocy in favour of celebrating her as a female
genius.
Sources: Encyclopaedia of N. East England by Richard Lomas
Gertrude Bell by Ann Talbot in Lives to Remember series 1958
A woman in the Desert by D Cowen 1967
The extraordinary life of G. Bell by James Buchan
The Queen of the Quaqmire. Rory Stewart 2007
Numerous references on the web.
Apart from books she herself wrote there are 16 volumes of letters including 1,600 to her parents in
the Newcastle University Library, and available on the University Web. www.gerty.nc|.ac.uk
Next Meeting
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