MEINERTZHAGEN, RICHARD HENRY°

MEINERTZHAGEN, RICHARD HENRY ° (1878–1967), British soldier, administrator, and supporter of Zionism. Meinertzhagen was the son of a successful non-Jewish German merchant in London; his mother was the sister of Beatrice Webb, the famous socialist. He was educated at Harrow and became an army officer. During World War i he served on the East African front and was on the staff of General *Allenby's army, which conquered Palestine. He was chief political officer in Palestine and Syria in the postwar military administration, and in a dispatch to the Foreign Office (1919), accused the military administration of hostility to the principles of the *Balfour Declaration, expressing the view that Arab opposition to Zionism would not last once it was known that the British government was determined to carry through its pledge of a national home to the Jewish people. He joined Herbert *Samuel's staff when the latter was appointed high commissioner of Palestine. Meinertzhagen was also attached to the British delegation to the Paris Peace Conference as an advisor (1919–20), and from 1921 to 1924 he was military advisor to the Middle Eastern Department of the Colonial Office. He remained a firm friend of Zionism, and his Middle East Diary 1917–1956, published in 1959, is a valuable record as well as source for correcting the misinterpretations of history related to the Balfour Declaration and the subsequent period. He was also an enthusiastic ornithologist, and his book Birds of Arabia (1954) threw much light on the bird life of Palestine.

bibliography:

J. Lord, Duty, Honour, Empire: The Life and Times of Colonel Richard Meinertzhagen (1971). add. bibliography: odnb online.

[Moshe Rosetti]