Gertrude Bell was an enthusiastic traveller throughout her life. She went on two around the world tours. Between 1899 and 1902 she climbed in the Alps and became one of the most respected female climbers of the time. Her desert travels are also noteworthy for their extent and the dangers she had to face. Bell’s extensive travels in Turkey, Mesopotamia and Arabia, were crucial to her later role as a member the Arab Bureau in Cairo and then of the administration of British controlled Mesopotamia. She knew most of the tribal groups and had personal ties with a great many of the tribal leaders. This knowledge informed many policy decisions by British administrators in the Middle East. As an acknowledgement of her achievements as a traveller and an explorer, Gertrude was one of the first women to be elected a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in June 1913, and won the prestigious RGS Founders Medal in 1918 “For her important explorations and travels in Asia Minor, Syria, Arabia and on the Euphrates”. Her bronze portrait was presented to the Royal Geographical Society "by a number of ladies as a tribute to a very distinguished woman".
Know more about Gertrude Bell and her extraordinary life: create Gertrude Bell’s explorer profile, with all the details you can draw from the documents above: her date and place of birth, her interests, the places she explored, her clothes.
Now it is your turn to draw your own personal explorer profile: where would you like to go? What kind of equipment would you take with you? Why?
This activity is inspired by, and can easily complement the Making a Mark in the Tees Valley,a classroom activity pack for KS1 pupils. Please check the Explorer Profiles activity (download here).
Descriptive writing, understand, describe, select or retrieve information, events or ideas from texts and use quotation and reference to text, geography, history.