R. V. C. Bodley

Colonel Ronald Victor Courtenay (R. V. C.) Bodley MC (March 1892 – 26 May 1970 ) was a British Army officer, author and journalist.

Biography
Bodley was born in Paris in March 1892, the son of John Edward Courtenay Bodley, a descendant of Sir Thomas Bodley. R. V. C. Bodley was Gertrude Bell's cousin.

Bodley was educated at Eton College and Sandhurst. From Sandhurst he was commissioned into the King's Royal Rifle Corps as a second lieutenant on 20 September 1911 and subsequently served with them during the First World War. He was awarded the Military Cross in the 1916 King's Birthday Honours. He reached the rank of colonel while in France, and was appointed assistant military attaché to Paris on 15 August 1918.

As assistant military attaché Bodley attended the 1919 Paris Peace Conference. What Bodley heard there reportedly made him feel like what he and millions of other soldiers had fought for was all for nothing. Disillusioned with the military, Bodley considered a career in politics instead.

Gertrude Bell introduced Bodley to T. E. Lawrence. Bodley ran into Lawrence one day outside the Paris Peace Conference and told him of his intent to move into politics. Lawrence responded furiously, calling Bodley a moron and a traitor. When Bodley replied telling him he had no other prospects now that the war was over and asking what he should do, Lawrence suggested "Go live with the Arabs." Bodley promptly sorted his affairs and went to live in the Sahara. His bemused friends held him a farewell party. They all agreed Bodley would be back in six weeks; Bodley did not return for seven years.

Bodley spent his seven years living with Arabs in the Sahara desert. He lived with a nomad tribe, purchasing a herd of sheep and goats and using them as a source of income. He wore Arab dress, spoke their tongue, practiced the Muslim faith and even lived with an Arab girl for a time. Wind in the Sahara, first published in 1944, is about his experiences there. Bodley was considered amongst the most distinguished British writers on the Sahara. In 1927, Bodley wrote Algeria From Within, based on his experiences having lived in the country.

Bodley was one of several westerners to be granted access to the South Pacific Mandates by Japan in the 1930s, and he has been cited as one of the main sources of information on the area at the time. Bodley wrote about his experiences and findings there in his 1934 book The Drama in the Pacific. In 1945, Bodley wrote his only fiction book, The Gay Deserters. In 1953 he wrote The Warrior Saint, a biography on Charles de Foucauld, which was given a favourable review in The New York Times.

Bodley continued his career and interest in writing until his later life, publishing The Soundless Sahara in 1968, and providing information for the 1969 book, The Secret Lives of Lawrence of Arabia, before his death in 1970.

Foreign awards
Bodley was awarded the Croix de Chevalier of the Legion d'Honneur by the President of France in 1919, and also appointed Officier of the Ordre de l'Etoile Noire in 1920, the Order of Carol I by Ferdinand of Romania in 1920, and the Order of Wen-Hu (4th Class) by the Republic of China in 1921.