British agent who died fighting alongside the Saudis: Who is William Henry Irvine Shakespear?
Captain William Henry Irvine Shakespear was a British officer who was skilled in many fields from photography to botany, from explorer to Arabic knowledge. But...
William Henry Irvine Shakespeare was born in Bombay, British India, in 1878. Before joining the British Foreign Office in 1904, Shakespear was sent to Kuwait as a political representative 1909. Within the framework of the secret agreement made with England in 1899, Kuwait was under the protection of the British at that time. Speaking multiple languages, including Arabic, Shakespeare was more than just a classical civil servant. Apart from his interest in photography and botany, he enjoyed traveling to areas that had never been mapped before. He met with Bedouins wherever he went and made a research on desert flora. His adventurous spirit showed itself once again in 1907.
Shakespear, who went to England by land via Iran, Turkey, and Europe with the car he bought from Karachi, was the first to use this route.
Captain William Henry Irvine Shakespear (29 October 1878 – 24 January 1915), was a British civil servant and explorer who mapped uncharted areas 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 Sa'ud from 1910 to 1915, when he was shot and killed in the Battle of Jarrab by Ibn Shraim. He was buried in Kuwait.
He also made his travels in Kuwait with this vehicle. He had not neglected to establish friendly relations with the Sheikh of Kuwait, Mubarak as-Sabah.
His dialogue with the Sheikh of Kuwait also led him to meet Abdulaziz bin Saud, the founder of today's Saudi Arabian state. Shakespear's first meeting with Ibn Saud was after a 1600-kilometer journey he had just completed. Shakespear's knowledge of the desert and his command of Nejd Arabic caused Ibn Saud to be astonished and invited him to Riyadh.
With his permission, Shakespeare took the first known photographs of Ibn Saud.
Shakespear, who went to Riyadh a short time later, laid the foundations of close relations in this way.
When World War I broke out, Shakespeare was among the special delegation that went to Ibn Saud.
The alliance of the Ottoman Empire with Germany made it necessary for the British to have a name like Ibn Saud in this region. Because his capture of Lahsa in 1913 also gave confidence to the British at the point of removing the Ottomans from the Persian Gulf. In return, Ibn Saud became the independent ruler of Najd. Therefore, Ibn Saud, who took a side with the British in World War I, started activities against the Ottomans. On the other hand, the Ottomans supported the Rashidis against the Saudis.
Reaching Ibn Saud's tent after a long journey of about 20 days, Shakespear went to sign an agreement with him for this purpose. The letter he sent to Percy Zachariah Cox, the representative in Bushehr in the Persian Gulf, dated January 4, 1915, informed him that his mission had been concluded successfully. After completing his mission, Shakespeare did not return to Kuwait and decided to take part in the upcoming conflict with the Rashidis. The fierce war that broke out in the vicinity of Jarrab a short time later, however, resulted in Shakespeare's death here. In this victory won by the Rashidis, 37-year-old Shakespear was killed by the bullets he received.
-------------------------------------------------
THE DEATH OF CAPTAIN SHAKESPEAR
https://www.qdl.qa/en/death-captain-shakespear
The Death of a Political Agent: Captain Shakespear
https://blogs.bl.uk/untoldlives/2015/01/the-death-of-a-political-agent-captain-shakespear.html