A. L. Holt

Major A. L. Holt, MBE, MC (1896–1971) was a British military officer and explorer.[1]

A. L. Holt

MBE, MC
Born1896 (1896)
Died1971 (aged 74–75)
AllegianceBritish
RankMajor
UnitRoyal Engineers
Other workExplorer

In the 1920s while a member of the Royal Engineers, Holt led a number of motorized expeditions through the deserts of Arabia, the first time such long journeys had been undertaken with such a large number of vehicles.

In 1921 Holt was involved in creating a track across the Syrian Desert from Baghdad to the eastern edge of the Basalt Desert in Jordan, which was to act as a guide track for the pilots of the Cairo – Baghdad air route.[2] In 1923 Holt took Rose Wilder Lane, journalist B.D. MacDonald and Holt's wife by car across the same desert.[3]

Holt traveled on occasion with St. John Philby and Gerard Leachman.

In 1923 he proposed a route for a trans-Arabian railway which he had personally surveyed in 1922 by automobile. He writes,

I have taken a convoy of Fords 350 miles in the desert without touching water. The extraordinary advantage of this in reconnaissance needs no emphasis.[4]

The railway was never built.

References
  1. Al-Yahya, Eid, ed. (2006). Travellers in Arabia: British Explorers in Saudi Arabia (1st ed.). London: Stacey International. ISBN 978-0-9552193-1-3.
  2. Hill, Roderick (2005). The Baghdad Air Mail. Nonsuch Publishing. ISBN 978-1845880095. Reprint of original dated 1929
  3. Holtz, William; MacDonald, Norman (illus). "The Little House on the – Desert". Saudi Aramco World. Houston: Aramco Services Company. Archived from the original on 3 March 2012. Retrieved 29 October 2020. Article appeared on pages 28–33 of the November/December 1984 print edition of Saudi Aramco World.
  4. Holt, A. L. (1923). "The Future of the North Arabian Desert". The Geographical Journal. 62 (4): 259–268. doi:10.2307/1781018. JSTOR 1781018. Retrieved 29 October 2020.


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