Allegiance United Kingdom Died February 1, 1990 Years of service 1915-1949 Service/branch British Army | Name Geoffrey Wheeler Rank Lieutenant colonel Role Historian | |
Battles/wars World War I
World War II Awards Order of the Indian Empire Books The modern history of Soviet Central Asia | ||
Battles and wars World War I, World War II | ||
Commuter quiz bbc1 east 17th february 1985 presented by geoffrey wheeler
Lieutenant-Colonel Geoffrey Edleston Wheeler CIE (22 June 1897 – 1 February 1990) was a British soldier and an historian of Central Asia.
Contents
- Commuter quiz bbc1 east 17th february 1985 presented by geoffrey wheeler
- Life
- Writing
- Works and Related Materials
- References
Life
Geoffrey Edleston Wheeler was born in Bromley, Kent, England to Owen Wheeler, a Captain Army Reserve Officer, and his wife Eugenie. Wheeler followed in the footsteps of his father, an infantry officer, and was commissioned into the Queen's Royal West Surrey Regiment in 1915 as a second lieutenant, and he reached the rank of captain before the end of the war. In 1918 he transferred to the Indian army. He initially served in the 1/6th Gurkha Rifles, and later in the 7th Rajput Regiment. From 1919 to 1925 he was attached to General Staff as an intelligence officer covering India, Palestine and Malta.
In 1926 Wheeler served in Mashhad, Iran as the British Military Attaché and he was stationed in Iraq from 1928-1931. Wheeler spent the next decade and a half in India where he severed in the External Affairs Department, the Ministry of Information and General Staff Army Headquarters.
In 1946 Wheeler was stationed at the British embassy Teheran, Iran (1946–1953), where he served as both the Press and Oriental Councillor until he returned to London in 1950.
He retired from the Indian Army in 1949 as a Lieutenant-Colonel.
In Wheeler 1953 retired from government service and founded the Central Asian Research Centre in London. He served director of the center until 1968 and editor of its journal Central Asian Review, one of the main venues for Central Asian research. He also sat as the Chairman of the Editorial Board of the Journal of the Royal Central Asian Society from 1961-1966.
Wheeler married Irena Bulatova in 1927, who died in 1973. They had one son.
Wheeler died in Surrey, England. His memoirs "Fifty years of Asia" are located at Oxford University, St Antony's College in the Middle East Centre Archive. Wheeler’s career is extensively covered in Myer’s Islam and Colonialism: Western Perspective on Soviet Asia.
Writing
Wheeler’s writing focused on the history of Central Asia from the time of the Russian conquest of the region in the mid-nineteenth century to Soviet occupation of Central Asia in the 20th century. Wheeler’s work is notable because he was one of the few scholars working to promote Central Asian Studies at a time when the field was in decline due to travel and research restrictions Soviet authorities imposed on academics. Wheeler engaged in the debates that raged in Central Asia Studies during the Cold War: what was the nature of Soviet colonialism in Central Asia and how was Central Asian ethnic identity formed. His books and articles were widely read amongst scholars and appear in the holdings of academic libraries around the globe.