The Society has hosted a number of exceptional events this past year. These included:
The Ghazi Al Gosaibi Memorial Lecture
We were exceptionally fortunate that this year’s Lecture was delivered, on 3rd December 2013, by Dr Eugene Rogan, Associate Professor of the Modern History of the Middle East, and Fellow of St. Antony’s College, Oxford, on The Middle East in World War One, the subject of Dr Rogan’s forthcoming and much anticipated book on the Great War in the Middle East.
The Rawabi Holding Awards and Annual Dinner
This took place at the Institute of Directors on 5th February 2014. This year’s prize winners were Sir James Craig and Mr Michael Field. The evening was particularly well attended, perhaps in part because of Sir James’s exceptional contribution, over many decades, to relations between Britain and Arabia. As always, we are enormously grateful to Sheikh Abdulaziz al Turki for so generously sponsoring both the prizes and an evening that is the highlight of the Society’s year.
Lecture by Her Majesty’s Ambassador to Saudi Arabia
On 5th March 2014, the British Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Sir John Jenkins, gave a well–received talk about Saudi Arabia in the Wider Region. We are grateful to Sir John for sparing the time and making the effort to deliver such a thoughtful address to the Society.
Lecture on Bee–keeping in Arabia
Julian Lush gave a fascinating talk on bee–keeping in Arabia, following the tour he had organised in which British Beekeepers visited bee–keepers in the Asir and discussed bee–keeping techniques with Saudi academics specialising in the subject. After the lecture we sampled honey from different regions of Arabia.
Sherard Cowper-Coles
Chairman
2014