MISCELLANEOUS 564
AN IVORY LETTER-OPENER FORMERLY THE PROPERTY OF H. ST. J. B. PHILBY, C.I.E., INDIAN CIVIL SERVICE, THE FATHER OF KIM PHILBY, THE SOVIET SPY, open-work decoration, the blade with the central inscription ‘H. St. J. B. Philby, I.C.S.’, 25cm. overall length, in good condition
£150-200
Harry St. John Bridger Philby, who was born in British Ceylon in April 1885, was educated at Westminster and Trinity College, Cambridge, and entered the Indian Civil Service as an Assistant Commissioner in the Punjab in December 1908. Thus ensued an extraordinary career that established him as an Arabist, linguist, explorer, writer and intelligence officer, the latter under the tuition of Gertude Bell in the early stages of the Great War, after he had been recruited by the British Administration in Baghdad.
In late 1917, he was sent to the interior of the Arabian peninsula as head of a special mission to Ibn Saud, the Wahabbi chieftain who was a bitter enemy of Sherif Hussein, the Hashemite Ruler of Hejaz. On returning from his mission, he crossed from Riyadh to Jeddah, a desert journey that would later be recognised by the award of the Royal Geographical Society’s Gold Medal. He was also created C.I. E.
Having then acted as Minister of Internal Security in Iraq, he was appointed Head of the Secret Service in Palestine, working at times with Lawrence of Arabia, though he did not share the latter’s views on the Hashemites. Indeed his role in Palestine would bring him into contact with a star-studded cast, including King George V and Winston Churchill. In 1924, however, he was forced to resign on account of unauthorised contact with Ibn Saud.
But British Intelligence retained his services over the next five years, a period in which he won acclaim as an explorer, not least when he became the first European to visit the Wabar craters. But such adventures aside, his influence in the newly created Saudi Arabia never waned, and, having converted to Islam in 1930, he was confirmed as Ibn Saud’s chief advisor in respect of any dealings with the British or Western Powers. Thus his subsequent part in negotiating oil rights, an area in which he dealt the British a poor hand, preferring as he did to promote American interests - popular opinion had it that Philby never forgave the British for ending his career in 1924 and that he proceeded to betray his country at every opportunity, even to the extent that he was in secret talks with Germany and Spain over oil matters in the lead-up to the Second World War.
In the interim, but unbeknown to British Intelligence, his son, Kim, had been recruited by Soviets at Cambridge, and very likely spied on his own father during the course of the 1930s, a danger to British Intelligence which was greatly enhanced when his father was successful in recommending him to M.I. 6 during the course of the War.
Following Ibn Saud’s death in 1953, Philby openly criticised his successor and was exiled to Lebanon, and it was while in Beirut that he was reconciled with his son. Moreover, he assisted Kim by introducing him to an extensive network of contacts in the Middle East - both were staunch opponents of “Operation Musketeer” at the time of the Suez Crisis, a plan about which they were well informed. Philby eventually returned to Riyadh in the mid-1950s, though he was again visiting his son in Beirut at the time of his death in September 1960.
565
‘OBSERVERS’ GOLD BROOCH, unmarked, 1.75g.; ‘OBSERVERS’ CLOTH BADGE; LIGHTER, brass, bearing the obverse and reverse of a French Indo-China 10 Centimes coin, crudely inscribed, ‘C. C. Forrester 8th Can. Batt. 1914-1918’, very fine and better (3)
£30-40
566
FIELD MARSHAL’S BATON, a rare case for a Field Marshal’s Baton, by Garrard & Co. Ltd, Goldsmiths, Jewellers, &c. to the King, approximately 62cm overall, some wear to red velvet covering at either end but generally good condition
£500-700
www.dnw.co.uk
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