Peter A. Hellyer (9 November 1947 - 2 July 2023) was a British film-maker, journalist, historian and archaeologist.
[1] A committed activist from a young age, Hellyer joined the executive of the Anti-Apartheid Movement and, at 21, helped create the 1969 Stop the Seventy Tour campaign, launched to boycott all-white South African sporting teams attempting to visit the UK.
[2] Hellyer first travelled to the Middle East in 1969 and subsequently accepted an assignment from film company UPITN (a joint venture between press agency United Press International and British broadcaster ITN), to film the official foreign visits of the founding father of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al Nahyan.
[1] He was responsible for the preservation of a number of sites of natural beauty in Abu Dhabi, including the Al Wathba Lake.
One of the key sites discovered by ADIAS under Hellyer was a pre-Islamic Christian monastery on Sir Bani Yas island in 1995.
[9] His papers, including reports, correspondence, publications, news clippings, and audiovisual materials, are held as an archive at the New York University, Abu Dhabi.
Tribulus - the Journal of the Emirates Natural History Group - 1991-2019[18] Hellyer converted to Islam in the early 1970s.
[22] On his death, WAM - the news agency he helped found - noted, "Hellyer's incredible devotion to the nation he loved will be remembered with great affection.