Nigel Groom (April 26, 1924 – March 5, 2014) was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

Arabist, historian, author,Nigel Groom

amazon.com Amazon.com, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational technology company focusing on e-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. It has been referred to as "one of the most influential econo ...

soldier,

counter-espionage Counterintelligence is an activity aimed at protecting an agency's intelligence program from an opposition's intelligence service. It includes gathering information and conducting activities to prevent espionage, sabotage, assassinations or ot ...

officer in

MI5 The Security Service, also known as MI5 ( Military Intelligence, Section 5), is the United Kingdom's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), G ...

and

perfume Perfume (, ; french: parfum) is a mixture of fragrant essential oils or aroma compounds (fragrances), fixatives and solvents, usually in liquid form, used to give the human body, animals, food, objects, and living-spaces an agreeable scent. Th ...

expert. He was a noted expert on the pre- Islamic history of the

Arab world The Arab world ( ar, اَلْعَالَمُ الْعَرَبِيُّ '), formally the Arab homeland ( '), also known as the Arab nation ( '), the Arabsphere, or the Arab states, refers to a vast group of countries, mainly located in Western A ...

Biography

Educated at Haileybury and Magdalene College, Cambridge, Groom served in the British Indian Army during the Second World War and fought in the Burma Campaign. Joining the

Colonial Office The Colonial Office was a government department of the Kingdom of Great Britain and later of the United Kingdom, first created to deal with the colonial affairs of British North America but required also to oversee the increasing number of c ...

after the war ended, he was posted to the

Aden Protectorate The Aden Protectorate ( ar, محمية عدن ') was a British protectorate in South Arabia which evolved in the hinterland of the port of Aden and in the Hadhramaut following the conquest of Aden by the Bombay Presidency of British India ...

in January 1948 and soon found himself in Bayhan as political agent, replacing Peter Davey, who had been killed in a gunfight. During his time in Bayhan he assisted in the construction of the first primary school and introduced the first motor car. In 1950 he was posted to

Dhala Dhale or Dhala, also spelled Dali and Dhalea and sometimes prefixed with Al or Ad ( ar, الضالع, Aḍ-Ḍāliʿ), is the capital town of Dhale Governorate in south-western Yemen. It is located at around , in the elevation of around 1500 metr ...

and moved to Aden in 1952, where he was Assistant Chief Secretary. From 1958-1962 he was based outside the Arabian Peninsula for the first time in his colonial career, moving to

Nairobi Nairobi ( ) is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The name is derived from the Maasai phrase ''Enkare Nairobi'', which translates to "place of cool waters", a reference to the Nairobi River which flows through the city. The city proper h ...

in Kenya. Groom joined the Security Service in 1962. His obituary in the journal of the British-Yemeni Society notes he was 'too discreet and too modest' to discuss this aspect of his career, but his contribution was noted with the award of an OBE in 1974.

Published works

* * *Nigel Groom, ''Perfume: The Ultimate Guide to the World's Finest Fragrances '' 1999, Running Press Book Publishers

Personal life

Groom’s wife died in 2009; he was survived by a son and a daughter.

Honours

Order of the British Empire (Civil) Ribbon

Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

- 1974

References

1924 births 2014 deaths MI5 personnel Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Alumni of Magdalene College, Cambridge People educated at Haileybury and Imperial Service College British people in colonial India {{UK-academic-bio-stub