Wilfred Thesiger

Major Sir Wilfred Patrick Thesiger, CBE, DSO, FRAS, FRGS, also known as Mubarak bin London (Arabic for "the blessed one from London") (3 June 1910 – 24 August 2003) was a British explorer and travel writer.

Early life
Thesiger was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the son of diplomat Wilfred Gilbert Thesiger and grandson of Lord Chelmsford. His uncle was Viscount Chelmsford, future Viceroy of India and the actor Ernest Thesiger was a cousin.

Thesiger was educated at Eton College, Berkshire, followed by Magdalen College at the University of Oxford, where he took a Third in History. Between 1930 and 1933, Thesiger represented Oxford at boxing and later (in 1933) became captain of the Oxford boxing team. He was awarded a boxing Blue for each of the four years that he was at Oxford.

Career
In 1930, Thesiger returned to Africa, having received a personal invitation by Emperor Haile Selassie to attend his coronation. He returned again in 1933 in an expedition, funded in part by the Royal Geographical Society, to explore the course of the Awash River. During this expedition, he became the first European to enter the Aussa Sultanate and visit Lake Abbe.

Between 1935 and 1940, Thesiger served with the Sudan Political Service stationed in Darfur and the Upper Nile.

Second World War
At the outbreak of war, Thesiger joined the Sudan Defence Force, helping to organise the Abyssianian resistance to the occupying Italians. He was awarded the DSO for capturing Agibar and its garrison of 2,500 Italian soldiers.

He later served with the Special Operations Executive in Syria and the Special Air Service during the North African Campaign, attaining the rank of Major. From 1943 to 1945 he acted as political adviser to the Abyssinian Crown Prince.

Travels
In 1945, Thesiger worked in Arabia with the Desert Locusts Research Organisation. Meanwhile, from 1945 to 1949, he explored the southern regions of the Arabian peninsula and twice crossed the Empty Quarter. His travels later also took him to Iraq, Iran, Kurdistan, French West Africa and Pakistan. He would live for many years in northern Kenya. He returned to England in the 1990s and was knighted in 1995.

Thesiger is best known for two travel books: Arabian Sands (1959) recounts his travels in the Empty Quarter of Arabia between 1945 and 1950 and describes the vanishing way of life of the Bedouins. The Marsh Arabs (1964) is an account of the Madan, the indigenous people of the marshlands of southern Iraq. The latter journey is also covered by his travelling companion, Gavin Maxwell, in A Reed Shaken by the Wind – a Journey through the Unexplored Marshlands of Iraq (Longman, 1959).

Thesiger took many photographs during his travels and donated his vast collection of 23,000 negatives to the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford. His books were analysed, from a collector's point of view, in Book and Magazine Collector magazine, No.65, August 1989, and again in 2008, Issue No.295.

Awards

 * ''Commander of the Order of the British Empire, CBE 1968
 * ''Companion of the Distinguished Service Order, DSO 1941
 * ''Master of Arts, MA, Oxon
 * ''Third Class Star of Ethiopia 1930
 * ''Founder's Medal, Royal Geographical Society, RGS 1948
 * ''Lawrence of Arabia Medal, Royal Central Asian Society, RCAS 1955
 * ''Livingstone Medal, Royal Scottish Geographical Society, RSGS 1962
 * ''W.H.Heinemann Award 1964
 * ''Royal Society of Literature, RSL 1965
 * ''Burton Memorial Medal, Royal Asiatic Society, RAS 1966
 * ''Honorary Dlitt Leicester 1967
 * ''Fellow Royal Society of Literature, FRSL 1982
 * ''Honorary Fellow British Academy, FBA 1982;
 * ''Honorary DLitt, University of Bath, 1992

Books

 * Arabian Sands (1959) travel writing classic, reissued in several editions
 * Currently available edition:
 * Paperback reissue April 1985 by Penguin; ISBN 0-14-009514-4
 * Out of print editions
 * Hardcover reissue 1960 Readers Union (1 January 1960) 270 pp; ASIN B0007J3E16
 * Paperback reissue 1981 Viking Press (February 1981); ISBN 0-14-002125-6
 * Hardcover reissue 1983 by Fairmount Books Ltd Remainders (30 September 1983); ISBN 0-00-217005-1
 * Hardcover reissue 1983 by Viking Adult (19 April 1984). 347 pp. ISBN 0-670-13005-2
 * Paperback reissue 1984 by Penguin; ISBN 0-14-009514-4
 * Hardcover reissue 1998 by Motivate Publishing Ltd; ISBN 1-873544-75-8


 * The Marsh Arabs (1964):
 * Penguin Classics; Reissue edition (25 October 2007); # ISBN 0-14-144208-5, # ISBN 978-0-14-144208-2
 * Out of print editions
 * Paperback reissue 1983 (out of print) – Gardners Books (30 April 1983); ISBN 0-14-009512-8
 * Hardover reissue 1985 (out of print) – Harpercollins Pub Ltd (31 May 1985); ISBN 0-00-217068-X


 * The Last Nomad (1979) – out of print in all editions.
 * Out of print editions
 * American hardcover reissue 1980 (out of print) – William Collins Sons & Co.; ISBN 0-525-93077-9


 * The Life of My Choice (1987) – out of print in all editions; described as a remarkable autobiography
 * Out of print editions
 * British edition Collins (1987); ISBN 0-00-216194-X;
 * American hardcover edition W.W. Norton (January 1988) 459 pp; ISBN 0-393-02513-6;
 * American paperback edition Harpercollins Pub Ltd (31 March 1993). ISBN 0-00-637267-8


 * Visions of a Nomad (1987)
 * Out of print editions
 * British edition Collins (1987); ISBN 0-00-217729-3


 * My Kenya Days Harper Collins, London, 1994; ISBN 0-00-255268-X


 * The Danakil Diary: Journeys through Abyssinia, 1930-4 Hammersmith, 1996, ISBN 0-00-638775-6 His account of exploring the Awash valley, and encounters with the Afar people.


 * Among the Mountains: Travels Through Asia Harper Collins, (1998); ISBN 0-00-255898-X. This account presents edited portions of journal entries written during trips to remote mountain areas of Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Kurdistan between 1952 and 1965, as well as numerous black-and-white photographs that he took at the time. There is little detail (nor current travel information) since the book is based on his diary entries. For a better account, read The Life of My Choice.


 * Crossing the Sands Motivate Pub Ltd (January 2000) 176 pp; ISBN 1-86063-028-6. About his journeys in the Empty Quarter and the Arabian Peninsula during the late forties, with photographs, but apparently more than a coffee table book.


 * My Life and Travels (anthology)
 * Available editions
 * Hardcover edition Harper Collins (21 October 2002) 352 pp. ISBN 0-00-257151-X
 * Hardcover reissue by Flamingo (6 October 2003) 320 pp; ISBN 0-00-655212-9


 * A Vanished World – in print
 * Available editions
 * First American hardcover edition 2001 W.W. Norton (17 September 2001) 192 pp; ISBN 0-00-710837-0
 * American hardcover edition 2002 W.W. Norton (April 2002) 189 pp, possibly the same as above, collection of photographs; ISBN 0-393-05086-6

In popular culture
In Gavin Maxwell's Ring of Bright Water, Bill Travers uses a copy of Thesiger's The Marsh Arabs to covertly spy on his soon to be close companion, Mij the otter.

Notes and sources

 * Notes


 * Sources