Page 101 - The Postal Agencies in Eastern Arabia

Post Office and application of Indian Inland and Imperial Penny Postage
rates”. And, at last, a Post Office was opened at Kuwait on January 21st,
1915.
It is doubtful if Shakcspear was present to see the fulfilment of
what he had tried so long to achieve; and for the reason for this belief
we must return briefly to 1910 when King Ibn Saud visited Kuwait to
confer with his old ally and friend Shaikh Mubarak who had sheltered
him at the turn of the century, and from whose country he had ridden
forth to capture Riyadh and establish his sovereignty over Saudi
Arabia. When Ibn Saud met Shakespear in Kuwait in March 1910 he
took an instant liking to him and thus enabled the Political Resident to
make full use of Shakespear’s remarkable talents as an emissary between
himself and Ibn Saud. Shakespear was also the trusted friend of
Shaikh Mubarak who was another statesman of Ibn Saud’s stature, and
it was the friendship and trust of these three remarkable men, under
the guiding hand of Sir Percy Cox, that laid the foundations of Arab
participation on the side of the Allies against the Turks in Eastern
Arabia during the First World War.
Following a remarkable three months journey across the desert
from Kuwait to Aqaba, Shakespear had gone on home leave; he
returned to Kuwait in late 1914 and, in January, set out to join Ibn
Saud between Kuwait and Buraida. Shaikh Mubarak tried to dissuade
him from going until the Viceroy, Lord Hardinge, who was then in
Iraq visiting the I.E.F.,had been to Kuwait; but Shakespear had orders
from Sir Percy Cox to draft a treaty with Ibn Saud, and would not
wait. The treaty was drafted and, whilst waiting an answer from
Bushire, Shakespear was killed whilst manning one of Ibn Saud’s guns
against attack by Ibn Rashid’s (pro-Turkish) forces at Jarrab. Word of
his death reached Kuwait during the Viceroy’s visit in February 1915,
and the date of his death can therefore be fixed as being in the latter
part of January — only a few days after the Post Office was opened.
Indeed, the Memorial Plate in the Chapel of his old school, King
William’s College, records his death as having taken place on January
j
i: 24th, at the age of 36.
Ibn Saud wrote to Cox “Alas that our cordial friend and well
I wisher ... died. We had pressed him to leave us before the fight, but
he insisted on being present, saying ‘My orders are to be with you. To
leave would be contrary to my honour and my orders. I must certainly

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