- Geoffrey Wheeler
Lieutenant-Colonel Geoffrey Edleston Wheeler CIE (
June 22 ,1897 – February 1, 1990) was a British soldier and an historian ofCentral Asia .Life
Wheeler followed in the footsteps of his father, an infantry officer, and was commissioned into the
Queen's Royal West Surrey Regiment in 1915. In 1918 he transferred to the Indian army. He initially served in the 67th Gurkha Rifles, and later in the7th Rajput Regiment . From 1919 to 1925 he was attached to General Staff as an intelligence officer coveringIndia ,Palestine andMalta .In 1926 Wheeler served in
Mashhad ,Iran as the British Military Attaché and he was stationed inIraq from 1928-1931. Wheeler spent the next decade and a half in India where he severed in the External Affairs Department, the Ministry of Information and General Staff Army Headquarters.In 1946 Wheeler was stationed at the British embassy
Teheran ,Iran (1946-1953), where he served as both the Press and Oriental Councillor until he returned to London in 1950. Will Myer. Islam and Colonialism: Western Perspective on Soviet Asia. London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2002. p. 103-4. ISBN 0-7007-1765-X.]cite web
author= | publisher= Middle East Centre, St Antony’s College, Oxford. | year= 2005
url= http://www.sant.ox.ac.uk/mec/MEChandlists/Iran-Persia.pdf
title= Guide to collections relating to Iran/Persia
accessdate=2006-06-17]
cite web
author= | publisher=NameBase | year=
url=http://www.namebase.org/xwha/Geoffrey-Eddleston-Wheeler.html
title=Geoffrey Eddleston Wheeler
accessdate=2006-06-17]
cite web
author= | publisher=Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, King's College London. | year= 2005
url=http://www.kcl.ac.uk/lhcma/cats/hutton/hu90-01-.htm | title=Papers of Lt Gen Thomas Jacomb Hutton, MC, KCB, KCIE (1890-1981) | accessdate=2006-06-17] He retired from the Indian Army in 1949 as a
Lieutenant-Colonel .In Wheeler 1953 retired from government service and founded the
Central Asian Research Centre in London. He served director of the center until 1968 and editor of its journalCentral Asian Review , one of the main venues for Central Asian research. He also sat as the Chairman of the Editorial Board of theJournal of the Royal Central Asian Society from 1961-1966. Leach, Hugh , Luce Irigaray, Kullada-Kesbooncho Mead, and Susan Farrington. Strolling About on the Roof of the World: The First Hundred Years of the Royal Society for Asian Affairs (Formerly Royal Central Asian Society). London: Routledge, 2003. pp. 121, 202. ISBN 0-415-29857-1.]Wheeler married Irena Bulatova in 1927, who died in 1973. They had one son.
Wheeler died in
Surrey , England. His memoirs “Fifty years of Asia” are located atOxford University ,St Antony's College in the Middle East Centre Archive. Wheeler’s career is extensively covered in Myer’s Islam and Colonialism: Western Perspective on Soviet Asia.Journal of the Royal Central Asiatic Society.
Writing
Wheeler’s writing focused on the
history of Central Asia from the time of theRussia n conquest of the region in the mid-nineteenth century toSoviet occupation of Central Asia in the 20th century. Wheeler’s work is notable because he was one of the few scholars working to promoteCentral Asian Studies at a time when the field was in decline due to travel and research restrictions Soviet authorities imposed on academics. Wheeler engaged in the debates that raged in Central Asia Studies during theCold War : what was the nature of Soviet colonialism in Central Asia and how was Central Asian ethnic identity formed. His books and articles were widely read amongst scholars and appear in the holdings of academic libraries around the globe.Works and Related Materials
* Geoffrey Wheeler Collection: TS Memoirs ‘Fifty years of Asia.’ GB165-0298. Oxford University, St Antony's College, Middle East Centre Archive. NRA catalogue reference: NRA 20811 St Antony's College.
* Schuyler, Eugene.
Turkistan , Notes of a Journey in Russian Turkistan,Kokand ,Bukhara andKuldja . Ed. Geoffrey Wheeler. Abridged by K.E. West. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1966.* Spuler, Bertold. The Mongols in History. Translated by Geoffrey E. Wheeler. New York: Paragon Book Gallery, 1971.
* Wheeler, Geoffrey. “British Policy in Central Asia in the Early Nineteenth Century. The Mission of Richmond Shakespear.” Central Asian Review. VI, No. 4. (1958.)
* “Cultural Developments in Soviet Central Asia.” Journal of the Royal Central Asian Society. 41, III. (1954.)
* “Islam and the
Soviet Union .”Asian Affairs . 10. (1979.)* “Islam in the
USSR .” Central Asian Review. 9, IV. (1961.)* The Modern History of Soviet Central Asia. London: Weidenfelf and Nicolson, 1964.
* “The Muslims of Central Asia.”
Problems of Communism . 16, V. (1967.)* Nationality and Nationalism in Soviet Muslim Asia..
Azad Bhavan , 1961.* “Religion and the Soviet State: a Dilemma of Power.” National and Religious Consciousness in Soviet Islam. Ed. M. Hayward and W Fletcher. London:
Pall Mall , 1969.* The Peoples of Soviet Central Asia: A Background Book. London:
Bodley Head , 1966.* “Race Relations in Soviet Muslim Asia.” Journal of the Royal Central Asian Society. 47, II. (1960).
* Racial Problems in Soviet Muslim Asia. London:
Oxford University Press , 1960.* “Russia and Islam: New Trends in Soviet Policy.” Central Asian Review. 4, I. (1956.)
* Russia and China in Central Asia. Journal of the Royal Central Asian Society 54, III. (1967.)
* “Russia and the Middle East.” Journal of the Royal Central Asian Society. 44, III. (1957.)
* “Russian Conquest and Colonization in Central Asia.” Russian Imperialism from Ivan the Great to the Revolution Ed. Taras Hunczak. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press 1974.
* “The Russian Presence in Central Asia.”
Canadian Slavonic Papers . 17, II-III. (1975).* Swords and Plowshares; The Indian Army as a Social Force. Washington: The Government of India Information Services, 1944.
* “The Turkic Languages of Soviet Muslim Asia: Russian Linguistic Policy.”
Middle Eastern Studies , XIII, no. 2, (1977.)* Wheeler, Geoffrey E. “Soviet and Chinese Policies in the Middle-East.”
The World Today . v. 22. no. 2. (Feb 1966.)Bibliography
* Bloch, Jonathan and Fitzgerald, Patrick. British Intelligence and Covert Action. Ireland: Brandon Book Publishers, 1984. p. 271
* Dorril, Stephen. MI6: Inside the Covert World of Her Majesty's Secret Intelligence Service. New York: The Free Press, 2000. pp. 535, 568.
* Leach, Hugh , Luce Irigaray, Kullada-Kesbooncho Mead, and Susan Farrington. Strolling About on the Roof of the World: The First Hundred Years of the Royal Society for Asian Affairs (Formerly Royal Central Asian Society). London: Routledge, 2003. pp. 121, 202. ISBN 0-415-29857-1.
* Myer, Will. Islam and Colonialism: Western Perspective on Soviet Asia. London:
RoutledgeCurzon , 2002. ISBN 0-7007-1765-X.* Ramsay, Robin. A Who's Who of the British Secret State. Hull: Lobster, 1989.
References
External links
Islam and Colonialism: Western Perspective on Soviet Asia. by Will Myer is available for browsing at [http://books.google.com Google Book Search]
* [http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/nra/searches/dpdocs.asp?DPR=D4260 Geoffrey Wheeler Collection: TS Memoirs ‘Fifty years of Asia.’]
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