Sir Charles Dalrymple Belgrave KBE (9 December 1894 – 28 February 1969) was a British citizen and advisor to the rulers of Bahrain from 1926 until 1957, as "Chief Administrator" or "adviserate".
"Wanted: Young gentleman, age 22 to 28, public school and/or university education, required for service in an Eastern State; good salary and prospects to suitable man, who must be physically fit; highest references; proficiency in languages an advantage.
[4] Amongst his many achievements in Bahrain, Belgrave was responsible for the establishment of a system of civil and criminal courts, a functioning and well trained police service, general and widely available education, municipal authorities and political support for the exploration for oil.
Belgrave is widely reported as having been a well-known and popular figure regularly seen riding his horse, wearing a topee (pith) hat, and visiting markets and public gathering places to listen to the views and aspirations of Bahrainis.
A general strike was called by the people of Bahrain in March 1956 to remove Belgrave as advisor and force him to leave the country.
[8] The uprising is said to have been started through the effort of Gamal Abdel Nasser, the ruler of Egypt at the time, going as far as secretly funding merchants of the bazaar, because of the disagreement that he was having with the British, and other western powers, over Israel.
[6][8] The Soviet Union would take advantage over the tensions caused by this spring upheaval and the criticisms of the western powers (France, the UK and the US) to supply arms to the Nasser government.
[6][12] According to authors Philip L. Kohl, Mara Kozelsky, and Nachman Ben-Yehuda in their work Selective Remembrances, Belgrave was "the first westerner to use and advocate the name "Arabian gulf", first in the journal Sawt al-Bahrain (Voice of Bahrain) in 1955.