St John Armitage
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Henry St John Basil Armitage (5 May 1924 – 19 October 2004) was a British army officer, diplomat and prominent Arabist, who served in the Arab Legion and the Omani Army before joining the diplomatic corps.
In a career across the Middle East spanning 60 years, Armitage was intimately involved with the Arab world, particularly in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. He was awarded the OBE in 1968 and CBE in 1978.
Armitage was born in Bradford, Yorkshire on 5 May 1924. He was educated at St Bede's and Bradford Grammar Schools, and Christ's Hospital, Lincoln. In 1942 he went on to read oriental studies at Trinity College, Cambridge but after a year was called up to serve in the Army.[1]
Sent to the Middle East, he served in Transjordan under John Bagot Glubb in the Arab Legion.[2] Deciding to remain in the army following the war, Armitage was seconded to the British Military Mission to King Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud, advising the Saudi Defence Minister, where he was responsible for sending a first generation of officer cadets from Saudi Arabia to train at Sandhurst.[2] He was credited with helping to manage the often fractious relationship between Britain and Saudi Arabia in the years leading up to the Buraimi dispute, when British interests in the Trucial States and Oman were frequently at odds with Saudi intentions at a time when British influence in Saudi Arabia, particularly in the area of defence, was under pressure from American oil and defence companies.[2]
Armitage left the British army with the rank of Major in 1949, and spent two years working in desert locust control in both Kenya and Yemen - an area of work that his close friend Wilfrid Thesiger had previously pursued.[1] Following this, he joined Sultan Said bin Taimur of Oman's Defence Force in the remote town of Salalah in the rebellious southern Omani province of Dhofar.[1] During his time in Oman, Armitage was to form a strong relationship with Qaboos bin Said, Said bin Taimur's only son who would later go on to become ruler of Oman.[2] After seven years in the Omani army, Armitage took up consultancy work, first in the oil industry in Libya and then, in 1962, in Beirut.[3]