William Richard Williamson (1872-1958) was a Bristolian who left school at 13 and followed a life of adventure, sailing to Australia and the United States, where among other things he acquired a mine, before enlisting on a whaler in the Behring Straits, and a voyage to the South Seas. Jailed in Manila for gun- running, he escaped to Aden, where he joined the local constabulary, and converted to Islam. He made the Haj to Mecca, becoming known as Haji, and began trading horses to the Indian Army. He also ventured into pearling, taking part in the fleet in the Pearling Gulf, but this did not prove lucrative, and when he was offered a position with the Anglo-Persian Oil Company he accepted. His conversion to Islam, and his familiarity with areas adjoining the Gulf - particularly Iraq, Kuwait, and elsewhere - gave him the know- how to secure oil concessions from Qatar and Abu Dhabi. Stanton Hope,a writer of adventure novels, visited Iraq to gain materials for this account of Williamson’s life, the only contemporary account written.