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Sir Arnold Talbot Wilson (A.T. Wilson) (1885-1940) was a British government official who became known for his role as a colonial administrator of Mesopotamia, later named Iraq, during and after World War I. Image File history File links Unbalanced_scales. ... 1885 (MDCCCLXXXV) is a common year starting on Thursday. ... 1940 (MCMXL) was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1940 calendar). ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Combatants Allied Powers: France Italy Russia Serbia United Kingdom United States Central Powers: Austria-Hungary Bulgaria Germany Ottoman Empire Commanders Douglas Haig John Jellicoe Ferdinand Foch Georges Clemenceau Luigi Cadorna Nicholas II Aleksei Brusilov Woodrow Wilson John Pershing Wilhelm II Paul von Hindenburg Reinhard Scheer Franz Josef I Conrad von...

Early Career

Born in 1882, gifted with great health and considerable energy and memory, he was educated in England at Clifton Public School where his father was a headmaster. He started his career as a young officer in the British army in India. In 1904, he was sent as a Lieutenant to Persia (now Iran) to lead a group of Bengal Lancers to guard the British consulate in Ahwaz and to protect the work of the D’Arcy Oil Company, which had obtained a sixty years oil concession in Iran and was pursuing oil exploration in partnership with the Burma Oil Company. In this capacity, Wilson witnessed in May 1908 the first gush of oil in south western Iran, in a place named Masjid-i-Suleiman. This was the first major discovery of oil in the British colonial empire, and it would be developed with a 138 mile pipeline and a large refinery in Abadan, in the Shatt-El-Arab estuary leading to the Arab-Persian Gulf. Subsequently, in 1913, as World War 1 was threatening, the D’Arcy Company was transformed into the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, or APOC, which was 51% owned by the British government and which signed a twenty years fuel supply contract with the British Royal Navy. APOC became the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company – AIOC - in 1935 and, eventually, British Petroleum – BP – in 1954. 1882 (MDCCCLXXXII) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a common year starting on Tuesday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar. ... Motto: (French for God and my right) Anthem: Multiple unofficial anthems Capital London Largest city London Official language(s) English (de facto) Government Constitutional monarchy  - Queen Queen Elizabeth II  - Prime Minister Tony Blair MP Unification    - by Athelstan AD 927  Area    - Total 130,395 km² (1st in UK)   50,346 sq... The British Army is the land armed forces branch of the British Armed Forces. ... For other uses of this term see: Persia (disambiguation) The Persian Empire is the name used to refer to a number of historic dynasties that have ruled the country of Persia (Iran). ... Iranian province of Khuzestan and has a warm & humid climate. ... 1908 (MCMVIII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Abadan (آبادان in Persian) is a city in the Khuzestan province in southwestern Iran (Persia). ... It has been suggested that Persian Gulf States be merged into this article or section. ... 1913 (MCMXIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday. ... Following the discovery of a large oil field in Masjet Soleiman, in Iran, the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (APOC) was founded in 1909. ... The Royal Navy is the navy of the United Kingdom. ... 1935 (MCMXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... This article is about the corporation known as BP. See also BP (disambiguation) BP (formerly British Petroleum and briefly known as BP Amoco) (NYSE: BP) is a petroleum company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. ... 1954 (MCMLIV) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Governing Iraq

In 1915, in the middle of WW1, as Great Britain was moving troops from India into Mesopotamia through the Persian Gulf and Basra, Wilson was designated to be assistant, and then deputy, to Sir Percy Cox (Percy Zachariah Cox), the British Political Officer for the region. Based in Baghdad, he then progressively became the Acting Civil Commissioner for Mesopotamia, later to be renamed Iraq, effectively in charge of governing this newly created country which would later be put under British Mandate by the League of Nations. 1915 (MCMXV) was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... Sir Percy Zachariah Cox (1864 - 1937) was a British administrator and diplomat in the British Mandate of Iraq. ... The Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, built between 1929 and 1938, was constructed as the Leagues headquarters. ...

During his administration of Iraq, which lasted till the summer of 1920, he worked tirelessly to organize and improve the administration of the country, according to the principles and methods he had learned in the British India Empire. In doing so, he became nicknamed “The Despot of Mess-Pot”. However, after the end of WW1, he found himself progressively opposed to other British officials, such as the famous “T.E. Lawrence” (“of Arabia”) of the British Arab Bureau in Cairo, as well as with his own Oriental Secretary in Baghdad, Ms Gertrude Bell. While both the latter favored granting independence under British supervision to the various Arab countries, Wilson believed that independence and political emancipation could not be granted before a long period of thorough “nation building” process had occurred under the leadership of a British protectorate. In Wilson’s views, the priority was to reconstruct and stabilize the country, by establishing an efficient government and administration as well as a fair treatment and political representation of the various ethnic and religious communities (i.e., in the case of Iraq: Arabs, Kurds, Persians, of religions such as Muslim Shiite and Sunni, Christian and Jews). 1920 (MCMXX) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar) // Events January January 3 - Babe Ruth is traded by the Boston Red Sox to the New York Yankees for $125,000, the largest sum ever paid for a player at that time. ... Thomas Edward Lawrence (August 16, 1888 – May 19, 1935), also known as Lawrence of Arabia, and (apparently, among his Arab allies) Aurens or El Aurens, became famous for his role as a British liaison officer during the Arab Revolt of 1916–1918. ... Cairos location in Egypt Coordinates: Governor Dr. Abdul Azim Wazir Area    - City 210 km²  - Metro 1,492 km² Population    - City (2005) 7,438,376  - Density 35,420/km²  - Urban 10,834,495  - Metro 15,200,000 Time zone EET (UTC+2) EEST (UTC+3) Cairo (Arabic: ‎ translit: , translated the... Baghdad ( translit: ) is the capital of Iraq and of Baghdad Governorate. ... Gertrude Margaret Lowthian Bell (July 14, 1868–July 12, 1926) was a British woman who had a major hand in creating the modern state of Iraq. ... The Arabs (Arabic: عرب ) are an ethnic group found throughout the Middle East and North Africa. ... Kurds are one of the Iranian peoples and speak Kurdish, a north-Western Iranian language related to Persian. ... The Persians of Iran (officially named Persia by West until 1935 while still referred to as Persia by some) are an Iranian people who speak Persian (locally named Fârsi by native speakers) and often refer to themselves as ethnic Iranians as well. ... Shi‘as (the adjective in Arabic is شيعى shi‘i; English has traditionally used Shiite) which mean follower in Arabic make up the second largest sect of believers in Islam, constituting about 30%-35% of all Muslim. ... Sunni Islam (Arabic سنّة) is the largest denomination of Islam. ... A Christian is a follower of Jesus of Nazareth, referred to as Christ. ...

In 1919, during the Paris international conference which followed WW1, he was amongst the few who successfully recommended adopting the Arab name Iraq instead of the Greek name Mesopotamia. This name change was intended to cover the planned northern expansion of the newly created country under British Mandate to include the oil rich Mosul region of Kurdistan, in addition to the Mesopotamian provinces of Baghdad and Basra. 1919 (MCMXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... Kurdistan (literally meaning the land of Kurds[1]; old: Koordistan, Curdistan, Kurdia, also in Kurdish: Kurdewarî) is the name of a geographic and cultural region in the Middle East, inhabited predominantly by the Kurds. ...

In April 1920, at the conference of San Remo, the League of Nations agreed the British mandate over Iraq, i.e. Mesopotamia plus the Mosul province of Kurdistan which was formerly part of the Ottoman Turkish Empire. In his announcement of the mandate to the Iraqi population, Wilson emphasized the role of the British mandatory in a way which was considered restrictive by the Iraqis and resulted in tensions. In the Spring and summer of 1920, various insurgency riots erupted across central and southern Iraq. These riots were often violently repressed by Wilson’s British administration, together with the British troops headed by general Aylmer Haldane. The total number of Iraqi casualties of these riots was estimated to have reached 10,000 people. 1920 (MCMXX) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar) // Events January January 3 - Babe Ruth is traded by the Boston Red Sox to the New York Yankees for $125,000, the largest sum ever paid for a player at that time. ...

In the middle of the summer, Wilson made a compromise proposal, suggesting that Faysal, the ex King of Syria who had just been defeated by the French army, be offered the throne of Iraq; this proposal was intended to obtain support from the Iraqi population as well as by the British officials who favored a controlled Arab independence. It was eventually accepted by the British Governement and by Faysal, but Wilson would not be there to participate in its implementation. Indeed, the British government had decided not to follow Wilson views, but to grant independence to Iraq. The main reason for this decision was that the British Governement no longer had the financial and military means to operate a protectorate over Iraq, with the required civil and military organizations that this required. The other reason was, along the lines of thought of T.E. Lawrence and Gertrude Bell, to obtain the Arabs and Iraq’s support, with the goal to ensure that these newly independent nations would remain allies to Great Britain and its Empire.

Career at APOC

At the end of 1920, the British government removed Wilson from his position in Iraq, and awarded him a Knighthood. Deeply disappointed by the turn of events, he then left the public service and joined APOC as manager of their Middle Eastern operations, a position which still enabled him to be invited to attend as advisor the British Government Middle East conference organized by the Secretary of State for Colonial Office, Winston Churchill, in Cairo in March 1921, where he met again his former Oriental Secretary and previous opponent, Gertrude Bell. 1920 (MCMXX) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar) // Events January January 3 - Babe Ruth is traded by the Boston Red Sox to the New York Yankees for $125,000, the largest sum ever paid for a player at that time. ...

Death

Wilson was later elected as a Member of the British Parliament, and, when WWII was declared, he volunteered in the Royal Air Force. He died, aged 55, in May 1940 during the evacuation of Dunkirk, as the RAF bomber plane on which he was a gunner was shot down by German artillery. German soldiers at the Battle of Stalingrad World War II was the most extensive and costly armed conflict in the history of the world, involving the great majority of the worlds nations, being fought simultaneously in several major theatres, and costing tens of millions of lives. ... The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the air force branch of the British Armed Forces. ...

References

• Late Victorian: The Life of Sir Arnold Talbot, by John Marlowe, 1967 (London).
• Sowing the Wind: The Seeds of Conflict in the Middle East, by John Keay, W.W. Norton, 2003 (New York, London).