Major Robert Ernest Cheesman

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(1878,

Ashford, Kent Ashford is a town in the county of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Great Stour at the southern or Escarpment, scarp edge of the North Downs, about southeast of central London and northwest of Folkestone by road. In the ...

– 13 February 1962) was an English military officer, explorer,

ornithologist Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the "methodological study and consequent knowledge of birds with all that relates to them." Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and th ...

and author. He is noted for being one of the first to map the Arabian coast and credited with the discovery of a rodent, named after him,

Cheesman's gerbil Cheesman's gerbil (''Gerbilus cheesmani'') is a small rodent in the subfamily Gerbillinae of the family Muridae. It is distributed mainly in Arabian Peninsula to southwestern Iran. It has orange-brown fur, white underparts, large eyes and a ve ...

(''Gerbillus cheesmani'').

Life and career

He was one of the five children of Florence Maud Tassell (d. 1944) and Robert Cheesman (d. 1915), a gentleman farmer of modest means. Cheesman was Private Secretary to Sir Percy Cox during his tenure as High Commissioner in

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

. In 1923, during a journey into the

Arabian Peninsula The Arabian Peninsula, (; ar, شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّة, , "Arabian Peninsula" or , , "Island of the Arabs") or Arabia, is a peninsula of Western Asia, situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Plate ...

, Cheesman collected over 300 specimens from the

Al-Ahsa Oasis ''Al-Aḥsāʾ'' ( ar, الْأَحْسَاء, ''al-ʾAhsā''), also known as al-Ḥasāʾ () or Hajar (), is a traditional oasis historical region in eastern Saudi Arabia whose name is used by the Al-Ahsa Governorate, which makes up much of th ...

, several of them previously unknown to science. These specimens are currently in the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

. During this period, he was accompanied by his sister,

Evelyn Cheesman Lucy Evelyn Cheesman (8 October 1881 – 15 April 1969) was a British entomologist and traveller. Between 1924 and 1952, Cheesman went on 8 solo expeditions in the South Pacific, and collected over 70,000 specimens, which she accompanied with ...

, a noted entomologist, painter and prolific author. He is credited with discovering

(''Gerbillus cheesmani''). Cheesman was the first man to map the Arabian coast from the

Gulf of Salwah The Gulf of Salwah (Dawhat Salwah) is the southern portion of the Gulf of Bahrain. The Gulf of Salwah is a narrow bay separating the peninsula of Qatar from Saudi Arabia. It is bordered to the west by a well-vegetated shoreland containing palm tree ...

to Uqair. In 1924 he fixed the position of Hofuf and identified the site of ancient

Gerrha Gerrha ( grc, Γέρρα, translit=Gérrha) was an ancient and renowned city within Eastern Arabia, on the west side of the Persian Gulf. History Prior to Gerrha, the area belonged to the Dilmun civilization, which was conquered by the Assyria ...

. He presented his findings to

Ibn Sa'ud Abdulaziz bin Abdul Rahman Al Saud ( ar, عبد العزيز بن عبد الرحمن آل سعود, ʿAbd al ʿAzīz bin ʿAbd ar Raḥman Āl Suʿūd; 15 January 1875Ibn Saud's birth year has been a source of debate. It is generally accepted ...

at his court in Hofuf. He was later given the Gill Memorial Award for this work by the

Royal Geographical Society The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...

. In 1936 he was awarded the Patron's Medal of the society for his explorations and surveys of the Blue Nile and

Lake Tana Lake Tana ( am, ጣና ሐይቅ, T’ana ḥāyik’i; previously Tsana) is the largest lake in Ethiopia and the source of the Blue Nile. Located in Amhara Region in the north-western Ethiopian Highlands, the lake is approximately long and wid ...

Family

His sister

was a noted entomologist and traveller. Another sister was

Edith Cheesman Florence Edith Cheesman (1877–1964) was a British artist and author, noted for her watercolours of Arabian birdlife and for producing a series of Iraqi postage stamps and postcards featuring wildlife. Life and career Florence Edith Cheesman was ...

, a notable artist who exhibited and published a series of sketches and paintings of Iraq.

Publications

* 'Report on a collection of mammals made by Col. J.E.B. Hotson in Shiraz, Persia', ''Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society'', vol. 27, no. 3, pp. 573–581. * ''Unknown Arabia'', R. E. Cheesman. London, Macmillan & Co., 1926

References

* ''Travellers in Arabia'', Eid Al Yahya, Stacey International (2006). (9780955219313) * ''In Unknown Arabia'', R. E. Cheesman Macmillan & Co. (1926)

External links

Robert Cheeseman: An Arabian Explorer
1878 births 1962 deaths English explorers English travel writers Explorers of Asia Explorers of Arabia {{UK-explorer-stub