Brigadier-General Sir Gilbert Falkingham Clayton (6 April 1875 – 11 September 1929) was a

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

intelligence officer and colonial administrator, who worked in several countries in the Middle East in the early 20th century. In Egypt, during World War I as an intelligence officer, he supervised those who worked to start the

Arab Revolt The Arab Revolt ( ar, الثورة العربية, ) or the Great Arab Revolt ( ar, الثورة العربية الكبرى, ) was a military uprising of Arab forces against the Ottoman Empire in the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I. On ...

. In Palestine, Arabia and Mesopotamia, in the 1920s as a colonial administrator, he helped negotiate the borders of the countries that later became

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...

, Syria,

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...

and

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...

Early life

Born in

Ryde Ryde is an English seaside town and civil parish on the north-east coast of the Isle of Wight. The built-up area had a population of 23,999 according to the 2011 Census and an estimate of 24,847 in 2019. Its growth as a seaside resort came af ...

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight ( ) is a Counties of England, county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the List of islands of England#Largest islands, largest and List of islands of England#Mo ...

, Clayton was the eldest son of Lt. Col. William Lewis Nicholl Clayton, and his wife, Maria Martha Pilkington. He was educated at the Isle of Wight College and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. He become an officer in the

Royal Artillery The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises t ...

in 1895. He was part of the forces sent to the Sudan during the closing stages of the Mahdist War, seeing action in the

Battle of Atbara The Battle of Atbara also known as the Battle of the Atbara River took place during the Second Sudan War. Anglo-Egyptian forces defeated 15,000 Sudanese rebels, called Mahdists or Dervishes, on the banks of the River Atbara. The battle proved to ...

(1898). He then served in Egypt, but in 1910 he retired and left the army to work as private secretary to the Governor-General of Sudan, Sir

Francis Reginald Wingate General Sir Francis Reginald Wingate, 1st Baronet, (25 June 1861 – 29 January 1953) was a British general and administrator in Egypt and the Sudan. He earned the ''nom de guerre'' Wingate of the Sudan. Early life Wingate was born at Port G ...

World War I

During World War I, Clayton worked in army intelligence in Cairo, Egypt, serving in the newly formed

Arab Bureau The Arab Bureau was a section of the Cairo Intelligence Department established in 1916 during the First World War, and closed in 1920, whose purpose was the collection and dissemination of propaganda and intelligence about the Arab regions of ...

. In 1914, he sent a secret memorandum to Lord Kitchener, suggesting that Britain work with the Arabs to overthrow their Ottoman rulers. He became Director of Intelligence, and was promoted Brigadier-General. In this role, he worked with many of the people that helped to trigger the

against the Ottoman Turks. In ''Seven Pillars of Wisdom'' (1935), T. E. Lawrence described Clayton's role as chief of British intelligence in Egypt between 1914 and 1917:

Colonial administration

Following the war, Clayton worked as an advisor for the Egyptian government, and then in the colonial administration of the Mandatory Palestine, British Mandate of Palestine. He was Civil Secretary of Palestine from 1922 to 1925, at which point he was briefly acting High Commissioner. He was then involved in negotiations with Arab rulers for the Treaty of Jeddah (1927); he was an envoy to the Sultan Ibn Saud of Nejd, tasked to undertake a mission to Yemen to negotiate with its ruler Imam Yahya Muhammad Hamid ed-Din.The Clayton mission to Sana'a of 1926
, the British-Yemeni Society, accessed 25 January 2010 From 1928, he was High Commissioner for the British Mandate of Mesopotamia (Iraq). Clayton was involved in negotiations for a new Anglo-Iraqi Treaty (1930), Anglo-Iraqi Treaty. His unexpected death, from a heart attack, delayed matters, but the new treaty was eventually signed in 1930.

Personal life

His younger brother, Iltyd Nicholl Clayton, was also a British Army officer. Mrs

In 1912, he married Enid Caroline Thorowgood in London, with the ceremony being conducted by Llewellyn Henry Gwynne, the Bishop of Khartoum.Gilbert Clayton
Jenab Tutunji, Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and North Africa, August 2004
, dsthorne.com, accessed 25 January 2010 They had five children, but, as the family accompanied him to his appointments, two of them died, one from pneumonic plague. His daughter Patience (later Marshall), who suffered from bubonic plague as a child, studied at Cambridge and went on to gain an OBE for her work as a magistrate and with young offenders. His son John went into medicine, becoming the doctor for Eton College and "Surgeon Apothecary to the Royal Household at Windsor", in which capacity he treated the Queen Mother when she got a fishbone stuck in her throat. in 1982. His other son, Sam, married Lady Mary Leveson-Gower, daughter of the Queen Mother's sister Rose Leveson-Gower, Countess Granville; their daughter is Rosie Stancer, polar explorer. On 11 September 1929, Gilbert Clayton succumbed to the consequences of a heart attack in Baghdad at the age of 54. His widow and their three remaining children moved back to England, first to Doddington, Lincolnshire, and then to a grace and favour flat at Hampton Court.

Positions

Clayton held the following positions: *1914–1916 – Director of Military Intelligence, British Army Headquarters, Cairo *1916–1917 – Brigadier General, General Staff, Military Operations, Hejaz *1917–1919 – Chief Political Officer, Egyptian Expeditionary Force. Military Governor, Palestine (Occupied Enemy Territory Administration, O.E.T.A. South) *1919–1922 – Adviser to the Egyptian Ministry of the Interior *1922–1925 – Civil Secretary to the Palestine Government *1925–1925 – Acting British High Commissioner for Palestine (Mandatory Palestine, British Mandate of Palestine) *1925–1928 – Envoy to the Sultan Ibn Saud of Nejd *1926 – Special Envoy to Yahya ibn Muhammad Hamid ad-Din, Imam of the Yemen *1927 – Special Envoy to Rome *1929 – British High Commissioner to the Kingdom of Iraq (British Mandate of Mesopotamia)

Honours

*1914 – Third Class of the Imperial Ottoman Order of the Medjidieh *1915 – Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George *1916 – Officer of the Legion of Honour *1917 – Companion of the Order of the Bath *1917 – Order of St. Stanislas, 2nd Class *1919 – Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire *1926 – Knight Commander of the Order of St. Michael and St. George

References

Bibliography

* *

External links

Gilbert Clayton
Jenab Tutunji, ''Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and North Africa'', August 2004
Clayton, Sir Gilbert Falkingham (1875–1929)
M. W. Daly, ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', September 2004
Review of 'An Arabian Diary'
Jon E. Mandaville, ''Middle East Journal'', Vol. 25, No. 1 (Winter, 1971), p. 115
Sir Gilbert Falkingham Clayton CMG CB KBE KCMG (1875–1929)
(dsthorne.com)
Photographs and portraits of Gilbert Falkingham Clayton
(National Portrait Gallery)

includin

(The British-Yemeni Society)
Clayton, Sir Gilbert Falkingham
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography {{DEFAULTSORT:Clayton, Gilbert Falkingham 1875 births 1929 deaths People from Ryde Graduates of the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich British Army generals of World War I Mandatory Iraq people British Army personnel of the Mahdist War Companions of the Order of the Bath Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George Royal Artillery officers British Army brigadiers Military personnel from the Isle of Wight Administrators of Palestine British colonial governors and administrators in Asia Arab Bureau officers