Stephen Hemsley Longrigg OBE (7 August 1893 – 11 September 1979) was a British military governor, petroleum company manager and a leading authority on the history of oil in the Middle East.

Early life and career

Longrigg was born in

Sevenoaks Sevenoaks is a town in Kent with a population of 29,506, situated south-east of London, England. Also classified as a civil parishes in England, civil parish, Sevenoaks is served by a commuter South Eastern Main Line, main line railway into Lo ...

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

and educated at

Highgate School Highgate School, formally Sir Roger Cholmeley's School at Highgate, is a co-educational, fee-charging, private day school, founded in 1565 in Highgate, London, England. It educates over 1,400 pupils in three sections – Highgate Pre-Preparato ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, where he won the Governors' gold medal and was later Chairman of Governors from 1954 - 1965. After winning a scholarship to study

Classics Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek literature, Ancient Greek and Roman literature and ...

Oriel College, Oxford Oriel College () is Colleges of the University of Oxford, a constituent college of the University of Oxford in Oxford, England. Located in Oriel Square, the college has the distinction of being the oldest royal foundation in Oxford (a title for ...

, where he gained a 1st in

Honour Moderations Honour Moderations (or ''Mods'') are a set of examinations at the University of Oxford at the end of the first part of some degree courses (e.g., Greats or '' Literae Humaniores''). Honour Moderations candidates have a class awarded (hence the ...

, he served in the

Royal Warwickshire Regiment The Royal Warwickshire Regiment, previously titled the 6th Regiment of Foot, was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in continuous existence for 283 years. The regiment saw service in many conflicts and wars, including the Second Boer War ...

from 1914, was twice

mentioned in dispatches To be mentioned in dispatches (or despatches) describes a member of the armed forces whose name appears in an official report written by a superior officer and sent to the high command, in which their gallant or meritorious action in the face of t ...

and then returned to Oxford from Iraq for his MA degree at the end of his military service in 1921. He then joined the British Administration in Iraq and served as Inspector-General of Revenue between 1927 and 1931. It was during this time that he wrote '' Four Centuries of Modern Iraq'' (1925), a history of Iraq under the Ottoman Empire.

Career with the Iraq Petroleum Company

In 1931, as part of a policy to replace British officials with Iraqis, Longrigg left the administration and joined the Iraq Petroleum Company (IPC). By now he was an accomplished linguist and Arabist, with a wide knowledge of tribal affairs He joined IPC at a time when the Company was preparing to build the first pipeline system from Kirkuk to the Mediterranean. Being appointed as a Land and Liaison Officer, Longrigg's role was to organise the purchase of land for the pipeline, pumping stations, terminals and depots along the route. He also had to organise the recruitment of labour, rates of pay and conditions of employment, and to make arrangements for the security of Company personnel and property. In 1933, before the pipeline was completed, Longrigg was sent to Jeddah to join negotiations for an oil concession for the eastern province of Saudi Arabia. He was unsuccessful in this, on account of IPC's refusal to make payments to the Saudi Arabian government in gold rather than rupees. The successful bidder,

Standard Oil of California Chevron Corporation is an American multinational List of oil exploration and production companies, energy corporation predominantly specializing in Petroleum industry, oil and gas. The second-largest Successors of Standard Oil, direct descenda ...

, went on to discover oil at Dammam in 1938 and in due course became known as

Aramco Saudi Aramco ( ') or Aramco (formerly Arabian-American Oil Company), officially the Saudi Arabian Oil Company, is a majority state-owned petroleum and natural gas company that is the national oil company of Saudi Arabia. , it is the fourth- lar ...

. In 1936, Longrigg was appointed general manager of an IPC subsidiary company, Petroleum Concessions Ltd, and spent that summer in Saudi Arabia obtaining oil concessions for the provinces of Hejaz and Asir (IPC did not find oil and abandoned the concession in 1941). Later in the 1930s, he played an important part in obtaining the first oil concessions for the Trucial Coast, including one for the sheikhdom of

Abu Dhabi Abu Dhabi is the capital city of the United Arab Emirates. The city is the seat of the Abu Dhabi Central Capital District, the capital city of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, and the UAE's List of cities in the United Arab Emirates, second-most popu ...

for 75 years, agreed on 14 January 1939.

War service

During World War II, Longrigg was appointed to the rank of

Brigadier Brigadier ( ) is a military rank, the seniority of which depends on the country. In some countries, it is a senior rank above colonel, equivalent to a brigadier general or commodore (rank), commodore, typically commanding a brigade of several t ...

. Having a good command of Arabic, he served on the general staff of Army headquarters in Cairo, planning for the expected occupation of Italian colonial possessions in Africa. He served in

Somalia Somalia, officially the Federal Republic of Somalia, is the easternmost country in continental Africa. The country is located in the Horn of Africa and is bordered by Ethiopia to the west, Djibouti to the northwest, Kenya to the southwest, th ...

, became Deputy Chief Political Officer,

Cyrenaica Cyrenaica ( ) or Kyrenaika (, , after the city of Cyrene), is the eastern region of Libya. Cyrenaica includes all of the eastern part of Libya between the 16th and 25th meridians east, including the Kufra District. The coastal region, als ...

, and then Chief Administrator (military governor) of

Eritrea Eritrea, officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa, with its capital and largest city being Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopia in the Eritrea–Ethiopia border, south, Sudan in the west, and Dj ...

, in which office he served from 1942 to 1944. He wrote ''A Short History of Eritrea'' (1945) shortly afterwards.

Academic and writing career

After the war, Longrigg returned to the Iraq Petroleum Company until his retirement in 1951. He authored the IPC Handbook, published in 1948. He updated his book on Iraq with ''Iraq 1900-1950'' (1953) and followed this with more books: ''Oil in the Middle East'' (1954, 3rd edition 1968), ''Syria and Lebanon Under French Mandate'' (1958), and ''The Middle East: A Social Geography'' (1963, 2nd edition 1970). In 1955 he gained an Oxford D.Litt. and regularly undertook lectures abroad, especially in the US and Canada. He was visiting professor, Columbia University in 1966, and the University of Colorado in 1967.

Awards

Longrigg was appointed OBE in 1927. In 1954 he was awarded a D.Litt. degree by the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

. He received the Lawrence of Arabia Medal in 1962 and the Richard Burton Memorial Medal in 1969.

Death

Longrigg died on 11 September 1979 at the Otara Nursing Home, Kingsley Green, Sussex.

References

External links

*Stephen Longrigg Amazon bibliograph

*Collard, J., "Report on Occupied Enemy Territory Administration, Cyrenaica 14 October 1941- 31 January 1942" by Brig. S.H. Longrigg; reports and memoranda on Cyrenaica, 1943–45, GB165-0062, Middle East Archive (MECA), St. Antony's College, Oxfor

*Read ''Iraq 1950-1955''
online
*Read ''Syria and Lebanon Under the French Mandate''
online
*Read ''Oil in the Middle East'
online
*Read reviews of ''Oil in the Middle East'

Royal Central Asian Society Journal, vol. 55, issue 2, Books Reviews, pp. 184–22

The Annals of the American Academ
Generals of World War II
{{DEFAULTSORT:Longrigg, Stephen Hemsley 1893 births 1979 deaths People from Sevenoaks People educated at Highgate School British Army personnel of World War I British Army brigadiers of World War II Royal Warwickshire Fusiliers officers Alumni of Oriel College, Oxford People of the Iraq Petroleum Company Officers of the Order of the British Empire Military personnel from Kent