| Admin History | William Henry Irvine Shakespear (1878-1915), diplomat and explorer, was born at Multan (now Pakistan) into a family working in the Indian forestry service. He was educated at Portsmouth Grammar School, King William's College (Isle of Man) and Sandhurst. He served in the Indian army for six years, was transferred to the political department of the Indian government, and was then appointed consul at Bandar-e'-Abbas and assistant to the political agent in the Persian gulf in 1904. He was appointed political agent in Kuwait in 1909, and held the position until 1914.
Shakespear met Ibn Sa'ud for the first time on the last day of Feb 1910 at the palace of Shaikh Mubarak of Kuwait, where he took the first recorded photograph of Abdul Aziz Inb Saud. The meeting took place in Thaj, eastern Arabia.
Further details on the diplomatic relationship between Shakespear and Ibn Saud are available in 'Captain Shakespear: a portrait', H Winstone (1976) and 'The birth of Saudi Arabia: the story of the rise of the House of Sa'ud', G Troeller (1976). |