Turks enter Kut, population massacred; many British troops die in forced march northward

May

Secret Sykes-Picot Agreement anticipates postwar division of influence in Middle East between France, Britain, and Russia

June

GLB appointed head of Iraq branch of the Arab Bureau as an officer of the Indian Expeditionary Force D (IEFD; based in Basra) while also serving Cox

Hashemite family leads inconclusive revolt of Arabs against Turkish rule in western Arabia

September

GLB in hospital with jaundice; then holidays on Euphrates

October

Cox signs treaty with Ibn Saud defining boundaries to limit his military incursions into Iraq

November

GLB arranges visit of Ibn Saud to Basra

Hashemite emir Hussein, Sharif of Mecca, proclaimed king of the Hejaz

December

Lloyd George becomes Prime Minister of Britain

1917 January–March

GLB continues in Basra as Oriental secretary to the civil administration of Cox, as well as head of the Arab Bureau (Iraq)

January

In western Arabia, Emir Faisal with Lawrence starts march of Arab army northward

March

Turkish army vacates Baghdad; British occupy

April

President Wilson asks U.S. Congress to declare war on Germany; American troops engaged in France

GLB moves to Baghdad after nine-day journey up the Tigris

May

GLB occupies her permanent home in Baghdad

Cossack troops commit atrocities in northern Mesopotamia

June

Lawrence takes Aqaba with Arab irregulars

Maurice invalided out of active service permanently deafened

July

Cox appointed civil commissioner of Mesopotamia reporting to the secretary of state for India in London

August

British defeat Turkish army in Gaza

October

Bolsheviks take control of the Russian Revolution

British Cabinet approves Balfour Declaration favoring Palestine as a national home for the Jews (announced November 2)

GLB awarded Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE)

Suffering from exhaustion, GLB admitted to convalescent hospital

Appointed editor of newspaper Al Arab writing “The Arab of Mesopotamia” for British officials

December

British take Jerusalem

1918 January

President Wilson makes his “fourteen points” speech outlining his principles for world peace including a “general association of nations”

March

Russia makes peace with Germany; Allied troops fight Red Army in Russia; GLB awarded Founder’s Medal of the Royal Geographical Society

May

GLB starts Tuesday soirees for wives of prominent Arabs

July

Holidays on horseback in Persian mountains

Women over 30 gain the vote in Britain if they were either a member of or married to a member of the Local Government Register, were a property owner, or were a graduate voting in a university constituency

September

GLB arranges durbar of sheikhs in Iraq

Cox posted to Tehran; provisionally replaced by Sir Arnold Wilson as acting civil commissioner; GLB’s role restricted

Lady Florence made Dame Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire (DCIE) for her work for the Red Cross; Sir Hugh awarded Companion of the Order of the Bath

October

Emir Faisal’s army takes Damascus with Lawrence; Turks fight last battle at Sharqat, then withdraw; Turks sign Mudros Armistice, end of Ottoman Empire

November

Allies sign armistice with Germany; First World War ends

December

Influenza pandemic reaches Baghdad

1919 February–

GLB prepares a paper for the Paris Peace Conference

March

on the future of Mesopotamia, attending the conference in March

April–May

GLB tours France and visits Algiers with Sir Hugh; returns to Peace Conference until A. T. Wilson arrives

May–September

GLB in England

June

Germany signs Treaty of Versailles accepting peace conditions; Covenant of the League of Nations signed by 44 nations on the 28th

September

GLB visits Cairo, Jerusalem, Damascus, Beirut, and Aleppo

President Wilson collapses while campaigning for the United States to join the League of Nations

October

President Wilson suffers massive stroke on the 2nd, leaving him permanently incapacitated

November

U.S. Senate fails to ratify the Treaty of Versailles on the 19th

GLB returns to Baghdad; starts writing Review of the Civil Administration of Mesopotamia

GLB’s maid, Marie Delaire, joins her permanently in Baghdad

1920 January

Sir Frank Lascelles dies on the 2nd

Arab Bureau in Cairo winds down

GLB takes archaeological trip to the site of Babylon

February

GLB organizes funding for a women’s hospital in Baghdad

March

Emir Faisal elected and crowned king of Syria

March–April

Sir Hugh visits Baghdad

April

San Remo Conference agrees to terms of British mandate over Iraq while instituting self-government

GLB to compile annual reports on the state of Iraq required by the League of Nations

June

Cox makes official visit to Baghdad

July

French occupy Damascus; King Faisal deposed

August

Treaty of Sevres between Allies and Turkey confirms terms for end of hostilities

October

Cox returns to Baghdad as high commissioner to Iraq

The naqib of Baghdad agrees to form a provisional Arab government and selects cabinet members

A. T. Wilson leaves public service

GLB prepares fortnightly reports to the Colonial Office on the progress of the administration in Iraq

November

GLB resumes duties as Oriental secretary

First meeting of Iraqi Council of State; future meetings frequently held at GLB’s house

December

Publication of Review of the Civil Administration of Mesopotamia, presented to British parliament

1921 February

Churchill appointed secretary of state for the colonies (including responsibility for the Middle East)

March

GLB attends Churchill’s Cairo Conference

Holidays in Egypt with Sir Hugh; returns to Baghdad

June

Faisal arrives in Basra; he greets GLB upon his arrival in Baghdad

GLB elected president of new Baghdad Public Library

Ibn Saud takes Hayyil; Rashid dynasty ends; Shammar tribesmen flee into Iraq

Three-month British miners’ strike hits steel industry

July

GLB announces result of Iraq referendum; naqib declares Faisal king-elect on behalf of Iraqi Council of State

August

Faisal ibn Hussein ibn Ali crowned Faisal I of lraq

September

King invites the naqib to form a cabinet

November

GLB’s half-brother Hugo marries Frances Morkill

1922 April–May

Iraq’s Constituent Assembly passes electoral law

Sir Hugh joins GLB for break in Jerusalem

July

GLB drafts antiquities law for Iraq

August

Bell finances diminish during international economic recession

October

Aiming to comply with the terms of the mandate, Cox and the naqib as prime minister sign a Treaty of Alliance between Iraq and Great Britain giving 20 years of British occupation in advisory capacity

Faisal proclaims Treaty of Alliance on the 13th

November

Allies and Turkey sign peace treaty officially ending war with Turkey

Macmillan Company donates books to Baghdad Public Library

Lloyd George’s wartime coalition government collapses; Bonar Law’s Conservatives win election; Churchill is replaced by the Duke of Devonshire with responsibility for Middle East

GLB’s brother-in-law Charles Trevelyan elected member of Parliament for Newcastle upon Tyne

Faisal, with Iraq Cabinet approval, appoints GLB honorary director of antiquities for Iraq

Air Marshal Sir John Salmond takes command of British forces in Iraq; RAF tasked with controlling tribal dissension

December

Sir Henry Dobbs arrives as prospective high commissioner, in charge while Cox visits London

GLB asked to continue as Oriental secretary

Cox signs treaties with Ibn Saud

1923 April

Cox signs treaty reducing British advisory occupation of Iraq to four years

Cox retires, leaves Iraq

May

Transjordan declared independent under Faisal’s elder brother Emir Abdullah by treaty with Britain, later to be the Kingdom of Jordan

July

League of Nations ratifies Turkish Peace Treaty at Conference of Lausanne

Constituent Assembly passes the draft constitution of Iraq (signed as the Organic Law by Faisal in March 1925)

July–August

GLB travels to England via Haifa, stays with Sir Herbert Samuel, high commissioner for Palestine

John Singer Sargent draws a portrait of GLB

GLB corresponds with Lawrence on publication of Seven Pillars of Wisdom

September

GLB amends her will, leaving £6,000 ($478,000 RPI adjusted) to the British Museum for a British School of Archaeology in Iraq

October

GLB founds the Iraq Museum

1924 January

Ramsay MacDonald forms first Labour government in coalition with Liberals; Charles Trevelyan in Cabinet as president of Board of Education

February

First national elections in Iraq

March

King Faisal opens Iraq National Assembly

King Hussein of the Hejaz proclaims himself caliph of Islam following abolition of the title by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, but without pan-Islamic acclamation

Dorman Long wins contract to prepare final design and supply nearly 50,000 tons of steel components for the Sydney Harbour Bridge; Hugh Bell as director

September

Anglo-Iraqi Treaty of Alliance accepted by League of Nations as meeting the League’s covenant

Ibn Saud’s Wahhabis raid the Hashemite summer palace of Taif in the Hejaz; townspeople massacred

October

Mecca falls to Ibn Saud; King Hussein of the Hejaz abdicates in favor of his son Ali

December

Faisal ratifies the Treaty of Alliance following its approval by George V in November

1925 January

GLB prepares briefs and translates for the League of Nations Commission of Inquiry investigating the unresolved Iraq-Turkey frontier

February

Hugh Bell visits Sydney to inspect the construction site of the bridge

July–October

GLB’s last visit to England; returns to Baghdad via Beirut with Sylvia Henley

Autumn

Sir Hugh, Dame Florence, and Maurice move to Mount Grace Priory to economize; Rounton Grange closed

December

Ibn Saud ousts Faisal’s brother Ali as king of the Hejaz; annexes the territory

1926 February

GLB’s half-brother Hugo dies of pneumonia

March

Vita Sackville-West stays with GLB in Iraq

May

British General Strike; seven-month miners’ strike cripples steel industry

June

First room of lraq Museum opened on the 14th

July

GLB dies on the 12th; funeral with military honors; buried in British cemetery, Baghdad; Memorial service at St. Margaret’s Church, Westminster

Ministers pay tribute to GLB in British parliament

Treaty between Britain, Iraq, and Turkey defines borders of Mosul district

1927

Dame Florence holds pageant at Mount Grace Priory in presence of Queen Mary, partly financed by sales of signed editions of Dickens’s works and his letters to the family

April

Tributes paid to GLB at Royal Geographical Society, London

August

Publication of The Letters of Gertrude Bell by Dame Florence, who gives celebratory dinner inviting King Faisal, Iraq prime minister Jafar, the Dobbses, the Coxes, and the Richmonds

October

Turkish Petroleum Company, a consortium of international oil companies, strikes oil near Kirkuk

1928

Window dedicated to GLB in St. Lawrence’s Church, East Rounton

1929

Turkish Petroleum Company changes its name to the Iraq Petroleum Company, developing what had been identified as the largest discovered oil field in the world

1930

Commemorative bronze plaque unveiled by King Faisal; bust of GLB identifies the Gertrude Bell Principal Wing of the Iraq Museum

May

Dame Florence Bell dies on the 16th

1931 June

Sir Hugh Bell dies; Maurice succeeds to baronetcy on the 29th

1932

British School of Archaeology in Iraq founded in London; £4,000 ($388,000 RPI adjusted) donation from Sir Hugh

Iraq joins League of Nations as independent state

1933

King Faisal dies; succeeded by son, Ghazi

1939

King Ghazi dies in motoring accident, succeeded by son Faisal II

1940

Rounton Grange used as a home for Second World War evacuees and for Italian prisoners of war

1947

British Treasury grant enables formation of the British Archaeological Expedition to Iraq under auspices of the School of Archaeology; permanent base in Baghdad established

1953

Rounton Grange demolished

1958

Faisal II of Iraq assassinated in coup; Iraq declared a republic

1991 January

Iraq Museum closed during the Gulf War

2000 April

Iraq Museum reopened

2003

Immediately before and during the invasion of Iraq by Americans and British, the museum was looted of some 15,000 items, many of which have been recovered; later reopened to archaeologists and school visits

2015

February Iraq Museum again opened to the public