Here is the real English Patient: Who is László Almásy?

The “English Patient” was actually a Hungarian nobleman. His full name was Lazslo Ede Almasy and he was known as "Count Almasy". He was born in 1895, in the town of Bernstein, which is within the borders of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, where the Habsburg Dynasty was in power at that time, and today is within the borders of Austria, and he spent his 56-year life diving from one adventure to another.

He went to study in England and returned to his hometown with both his diploma and pilot's badge just before the outbreak of the First World War. During the war years, he earned the title of "the pilot who shot down the most enemy planes" of the empire, then he indulged in one of the passions specific to the nobles of that period and became the test driver of the new model automobiles being manufactured. He also participated in the rallies that were becoming fashionable in those years, and in 1926 he went on his first big journey with the Steyr brand vehicle, which was considered the most modern car of that time: He went to Egypt, crossed the Nile, went all the way to Sudan and returned to Cairo.

László Ede Almásy de Zsadány et Törökszentmiklós (22 August/3 November 1895 – 22 March 1951) was a Hungarian aristocrat, motorist, desert explorer, aviator, Scout-leader, and sportsman who served as the basis for the protagonist in both Michael Ondaatje's novel The English Patient (1992) and the movie adaptation of the same name (1996).

Almasyi's life changed with this trip: He fell in love with the desert! The sands that stretched thousands of kilometers away, the oases that were vaguely visible on the horizon, and the hills full of dreams attracted him. Moreover, he was not alone in his love for the desert, he found a few friends: two Englishmen named Robert and Patrick Clayton, and Prince Kemaleddin and Prince Yusuf, prominent members of the Egyptian royal family... Prince Kemaleddin was married to Sultan Hussein, the ruler of Egypt at that time. His cousin, Prince Yusuf, was the owner of an enormous fortune, and both of them were world-renowned cartographers.

In 1932, they went to the deserts together and began to map places that no one had discovered until then. They were traveling in a Havilland light aircraft and Steyr automobiles. Their first location was the Libyan deserts, and they drew a map of the region and moved to the south of Egypt.

During this trip, the plane that Count Almasy was flying crashed. The Count escaped without any serious injury, but Robert Clayton, who was sitting in the back seat of the plane, burned to death...

The idea that inspired “The English Patient” years later was born from this accident! The screenwriters turned everything around, replaced Clayton with a woman, and made Almasy the hero of the movie by taking him out of the plane seriously injured.

It is strange that his closest adventure companion died in such a terrible way, but it increased Almasy's love for the desert even more. He was now running from one expedition to another, and he made his greatest discovery, which went down in the history of world science, at the end of 1933, a year after the accident: In Asyut, in the middle of Egypt, deep in the desert, he found a chain of caves full of paintings from prehistoric times! While he was mapping the vast desert with the princes, he was also publishing pictures of the caves he found in scientific journals.

GERMAN AGENCY IN THE DESERT

The Second World War broke out in 1939, and the British, who occupied Egypt, did not allow Count Almasy to stay in Cairo. He returned to his hometown, Hungary, but this time he faced pressure from the Germans who occupied his hometown. They wanted the Count to go to the North African deserts as a "Hungarian officer" and join the German troops under the command of General Rommel.

Because of his love for the desert, Almasy accepted the request and moved to Africa again. He was now a German captain, but he wore a Hungarian uniform. First, he helped General Rommel prepare war plans, and then he accomplished "Operation Salute", which also took place in world military history: He took the German agents in Libya through the depths of the desert and took them to Egypt without the Allies even noticing. In the meantime, he would go back and forth to British-occupied Cairo many times, waving his hands and arms, and years later, to those who asked how he did this job, he would say, "It was very easy!" He was going to say... “And I went in my uniform. There were so many uniforms from different nationalities in Cairo that they didn't even notice me..."

After the war ended with the defeat of Germany, he returned to his hometown again, but this time he was thrown into prison and brought before the People's Court in Budapest. The crime charged was collaborating with the Germans. He was interrogated for months, even tortured, but eventually, he was acquitted and released, and he was allowed to go back to Egypt to continue his scientific studies.

He sided with the defeated side in the war, but he was respected thanks to his academic identity. His past political and military activities were forgotten, he was appointed head of the "Desert Institute" in Cairo and he returned to his good old days. He relieved the heat exhaustion by frequently going to Europe, especially by listening to the wonderful concerts given in Salzburg.

He died in Salzburg in 1951. The dysentery he caught in the desert flared up and Count Almasy, who fell into bed, lived only a few days. In other words, the "English Patient" said goodbye to life not in an empty hall of an abandoned house behind the front lines, but in a stylish European city where operas and symphonies echoed years after the war.

This is the true story of "The English Patient"...