- Gerard Leachman
Brevet Lieut.-Colonel Gerard Evelyn Leachman CIE DSO (1880 - August 12, 1920), was a British
soldier and intelligence officer who travelled extensively inArabia .Leachman was commissioned into the
Royal Sussex Regiment and served inIndia and in the Boer War. He spent most of his career as a political officer in Iraq, where he was instrumental in pacifying warring tribes to bring stability to the new country. Leachman also made various expeditions further south into Arabia, where he contactedIbn Sa'ud on behalf of the British government. He travelled as a naturalist of theRoyal Geographical Society , but was in fact a British agent.With his dark,
Semitic looks and skill at riding a camel, Leachman was easily able to pass asBedouin and often travelled incognito.Leachman's first major expedition south into the
Arabian Peninsula was in 1909, during which he was involved in a ferocious battle between theAnaiza andShammar tribes nearHa'il . He was awarded Macgregor Memorial medal for reconnaissance in 1910. In 1912 Leachman made a second expedition with the intention of crossing theRub Al Khali , but was refused permission byIbn Sa'ud when he reachedRiyadh and instead went toHasa . He was the first Briton to be received by Ibn Sa'ud in his home city.In December, 1915, during the
Siege of Kut , the British commanding officer, Major General Charles Townshend, ordered Leachman to save the British cavalry by breaking out and riding south. This he did and the cavalry were the only British unit to escape before the fall of the city to theOttomans .Leachman was close to
Gertrude Bell 's friendFahd Bey and fought with theMuntafiq tribal federation. After the war, he was made first military governor ofKurdistan . He was murdered bySheikh Dhari , a tribal leader, nearFallujah on August 12, 1920.He was played by
Oliver Reed in "al-Mas' Ala Al-Kubra" (1983), a film financed bySaddam Hussein .References
*"A Paladin of Arabia. The Biography of Brevet Lieut.-Colonel G. E. Leachman", N.N.E.Bray, Unicorn Press (1936). ISBN 0-7103-0976-7
*"Travellers in Arabia", Eid Al Yahya, Stacey International (2006). ISBN 0 9552 1931 0 (9780955219313)
* "OC Desert; the life of Lieutenant-Colonel Gerard Leachman",H.V.F. Winstone , Quartet (1982). ISBN 0704323303
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