Sir Wilfred Patrick Thesiger, KBE, DSO, (3 June 1910 – August 24, 2003) was a British explorer and travel writer born in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. His father was a British diplomat. The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by King George V. The Order includes five classes in civil and military divisions; in decreasing order of seniority, these are Knight Grand Cross or Dame Grand Cross (GBE) Knight Commander... DSO medal The Distinguished Service Order (DSO) is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, and formerly of other Commonwealth countries, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, typically in actual combat. ... June 3 is the 154th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (155th in leap years), with 211 days remaining. ... 1910 (MCMX) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a common year starting on Sunday of the 13-day slower Julian calendar. ... August 24 is the 236th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (237th in leap years), with 129 days remaining. ... 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Exploration is the act of searching or traveling for the purpose of discovery, e. ... Travel literature is literature which records the people, events, sights and feelings of an author who is touring a foreign place for the pleasure of travel. ... For the long-distance runner, see Addis Abebe. ...

Biography

Thesiger was educated at Eton College and Magdalen College, Oxford where he took a third class degree in history. He returned to Africa in 1930, having received a personal invitation by Emperor Haile Selassie to attend his coronation, then again in 1933 in an expedition, funded in part by the Royal Geographical Society, to explore the course of the Awash River, and became the first European to enter the Aussa Sultanate and visit Lake Abbe. The Kings College of Our Lady of Eton beside Windsor, commonly known as Eton College or just Eton, is a public school (privately funded and independent) for boys, founded in 1440 by Henry VI. It is located in Eton, Berkshire, near Windsor in England, situated north of Windsor Castle... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... A world map showing the continent of Africa Africa is the worlds second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. ... Haile Selassie Emperor Haile Selassie I (Power of Trinity) (born Lij Tafari Makonnen, July 23, 1892 – August 27, 1975), styled His Imperial Majesty (or HIM), was the Emperor (1930–1936; 1941–1974) of Ethiopia, and is the religious symbol for God incarnate among the Rastafari movement. ... 1933 (MCMXXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday. ... The Royal Geographical Society is a learned society, founded in 1830 with the name Geographical Society of London for the advancement of geographical science, under the patronage of King William IV. It absorbed the Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior Parts of Africa (founded by Joseph Banks in... The Awash (sometimes spelled Hawash) is a major river of Ethiopia. ... Lake Abbe or Lake Abhe Bad is a salt lake, lying on the Ethiopia-Djibouti border. ...

Afterwards Thesiger joined the Sudan Political Service. In World War II, he fought with Gideon Force in Ethiopia, where he was awarded the DSO for capturing Agibar and its garrison of 2500 Italian troops; afterwards he served in the Long Range Desert Group in North Africa. He later worked in Arabia with the Desert Locusts Research Organisation. His travels also took him to Iraq, Persia (now Iran), Kurdistan, French West Africa, Pakistan and Kenya. He returned to England in the 1990s and was knighted in 1995. Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... The Gideon Force was a British-led African guerrilla force fighting the Italian occupation forces in Abyssiania (modern-day Ethiopia) during the World War II. Leader and creator of the force was British major Charles Orde Wingate. ... The Long Range Desert Group (LRDG) was a British Army unit during World War II. The unit was founded in Egypt following the Italian declaration of war (June 1940) by Major Ralph A. Bagnold with the assistance of Captains Clayton and Shaw, acting under the direction of General Wavell. ... The Arabian Peninsula The Arabian Peninsula is a mainly desert peninsula in Southwest Asia at the junction of Africa and Asia and an important part of the greater Middle East. ... Kurdistan (Soranî: كوردستان, literally meaning the land of Kurds[2]; Ancient: Corduene, old: Koordistan, Curdistan, Kurdia, also Kurdish: ) is the name of a geographic and cultural region in the Middle East, inhabited predominantly by the Kurds. ... Location of French West Africa French West Africa (French: ) was a federation of eight French territories in Africa: Mauritania, Senegal, French Sudan (now Mali), French Guinea (now Guinea), Côte dIvoire, Niger, Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso) and Dahomey (now Benin). ... For the band, see 1990s (band). ... 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

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 traditional peoples who lived in 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). Location of the empty quarter in Arabia Sand dunes in the Empty Quarter The Empty Quarter (Arabic: Rub al Khali الربع الخالي), is one of the largest sand deserts in the world, encompassing the southern third of the Arabian Peninsula, including southern Saudi Arabia, and areas of Oman, the United Arab Emirates... 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday. ... 1950 (MCML) was a common year starting on Sunday. ... A Bedouin man resting on a hillside at Mount Sinai Bedouin, derived from the Arabic ( ‎), a generic name for a desert-dweller, is a term generally applied to Arab nomadic pastoralist groups, who are found throughout most of the desert belt extending from the Atlantic coast of the Sahara via... Gavin Maxwell (July 15, 1914 - September 6, 1969) was a Scottish naturalist and author, best known for his work with otters. ... Longman is a firm of English publishers. ... 1959 (MCMLIX) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Thesiger took many photographs during his travels and donated his vast collection of 25,000 negatives to the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford. Pitt Rivers Museum interior The Pitt Rivers Museum is a museum displaying the archaeological and anthropological collections of the University of Oxford. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

Thesiger was not greatly enamoured of American culture, about which he had this to say:

The long-term effect of US culture as it spreads to every nook and cranny in every desert and every mountain valley will be the end of mankind. Our extraordinary greed for material possessions, the ways we go about nurturing that greed, the lack of balance in our lives, and our cultural arrogance will kill us off within a century unless we learn to stop and think. It may be too late.

His books were analysed, from a collector's point of view, in Book and Magazine Collector magazine, No.65, August 1989.

Bibliography

Books by Wilfred Thesiger (1910-2003)

• 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
    • (unknown binding) 1960 Readers Union (January 1, 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 (September 30, 1983); ISBN 0-00-217005-1
    • Hardcover reissue 1983 by Viking Adult (April 19, 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) -- out of print in all editions.
  • Out of print editions
    • Paperback reissue 1983 (out of print) -- Gardners Books (April 30, 1983); ISBN 0-14-009512-8
    • Hardover reissue 1985 (out of print) -- Harpercollins Pub Ltd (May 31, 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 biography
  • 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 (March 31, 1993). ISBN 0-00-637267-8

• 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 valey, 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 details (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 Peninula 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 (October 21 2002) 352 pp. ISBN 0-00-257151-X
    • Hardcover reissue by Flamingo (October 6, 2003) 320 pp; ISBN 0-00-655212-9

• A Vanished World -- in print
  • Available editions
    • First American hardcover edition 2001 W.W. Norton (September 17, 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

1987 (MCMLXXXVII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Collins was a Scottish printing company founded by a schoolmaster, William Collins, in Glasgow in 1819. ... Afar (or Danakil) are a tribal people who reside principally in the Danakil Desert in the Afar Region of Ethiopia and in Eritrea and Djibouti. ... 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean by UNESCO. [1]. // Coated in ice, power and telephone lines sag and often break, resulting in power outages. ... For album titles with the same name, see 2002 (album). ... For album titles with the same name, see 2002 (album). ...

Books About Wilfred Thesiger

• Michael Asher. Thesiger; ISBN 0-14-014749-7
• Alexander Maitland. Thesiger: A Life in Pictures; ISBN 1-86063-165-7
• Alexander Maitland, Wilfred Thesiger: The Life of the Great Explorer (Harperpress, February 20, 2006) 544 pp.

External links

Photographs by Thesiger

• Collection of Thesiger's photography in Pitt Rivers Museum

Obituaries and Profiles (mostly August 2003)

• Daily Telegraph obituary
• Review of maitland's official biography discusses various aspects of the explorer's life and characters.
• The Guardian obituary (27 August 2003) with links to an earlier profile (29 June 2002) and to extracts from his books and reviews.
• BBC obituary (26 August 2003) contains errors such as Wilfred being the youngest son, which he was not.
• Profile by Robin Hanbury-Tenison founder of Survival International (an NGO promoting the welfare of tribal/ indigenous people worldwide)
• Eric Newby's recollections of Thesiger