1. Sir Wilfred Patrick Thesiger, known as Mubarak bin Landan was a British military officer, explorer, and writer.
23 Facts About Wilfred Thesiger
1. 2.
Wilfred Thesiger was the son of Wilfred Gilbert Thesiger, who was British consul-general in Ethiopia from 1909 to 1919, and his wife Kathleen Mary Vigors.
3.
Wilfred Thesiger later recalled how impressed he had been on the day in 1916, when following the overthrow of the Emperor Lij Iyasu, the army of Ras Tafari "armed with swords and spears, some of them carrying rifles, but all of them with shields", followed by bands of wild tribesmen on horses, hurried past the British Legation on their way to give battle to Negus Mikael, the father of Lij Iyasu:.
4.
Wilfred Thesiger was educated at St Aubyn's School in Rottingdean, Sussex, followed by Eton College and then Magdalen College, Oxford, where he took a Third in History.
5.
Between 1930 and 1933, Wilfred Thesiger represented Oxford at boxing and later became captain of the Oxford boxing team.
6.
Wilfred Thesiger was awarded a boxing Blue for each of the four years that he was at Oxford.
7.
Whilst at Oxford, Wilfred Thesiger was elected Treasurer of the Oxford University Exploration Club.
8.
In 1930 Wilfred Thesiger returned to Africa, having received a personal invitation from Emperor Haile Selassie to attend his coronation, and joined the Order of the Star of Ethiopia.
9.
Wilfred Thesiger returned again in 1933 as the leader of an expedition, funded in part by the Royal Geographical Society, to explore the course of the Awash River.
10.
Between 1935 and 1940, Wilfred Thesiger served with the Sudan Political Service, stationed in Darfur and the Upper Nile.
11.
At the outbreak of war, Wilfred Thesiger joined the Sudan Defence Force, helping to organise the Abyssinian resistance to the occupying Italians.
12.
Wilfred Thesiger was awarded the DSO for capturing Agibar and its garrison of 2,500 Italian soldiers.
13.
Wilfred Thesiger later served with the Special Operations Executive in Syria and the Special Air Service during the North African Campaign, attaining the rank of Major.
14.
Wilfred Thesiger rode camels in the company of Bedu guides through remote areas that were potentially dangerous on account of tribal tensions and the opposition of local rulers to the presence of foreigners.
15.
Wilfred Thesiger continued with four members, two from the Rashid and two from the Bait Kathir tribes.
16.
Wilfred Thesiger reached the Liwa Oasis in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi in mid-December, visited the town of Abu Dhabi, then crossed into Oman, heading back towards Salalah via Dhofar and ending his journey at Salalah on 23 February 1947.
17.
Wilfred Thesiger's second crossing began in December 1947, at Manwakh well in Yemen.
18.
The king of Saudi Arabia did not agree to Wilfred Thesiger entering his territory, and imprisoned Wilfred Thesiger and his party when they arrived at Sulayil.
19.
Wilfred Thesiger disapproved of the company's activities, believing that the discovery of oil would destroy the Bedouin way of life.
20.
Wilfred Thesiger is known for two travel books: Arabian Sands, which recounts his travels in the Empty Quarter of Arabia between 1945 and 1950 and describes the vanishing way of life of the Bedu; and The Marsh Arabs, which is an account of the Madan, the indigenous people of the marshlands of southern Iraq.
21.
Wilfred Thesiger returned to England in the 1990s and was knighted in 1995.
22.
Wilfred Thesiger took many photographs during his travels and donated his vast collection of 38,000 negatives to the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford.
23.
Wilfred Thesiger was a guest on the BBC's Desert Island Discs, broadcast on 6 October 1979.