Violet Dickson

Hajjiyah Dame Violet Penelope Dickson, DBE (née Lucas-Calcraft; 3 September 1896 – 4 January 1991) was an English botanist, writer, and Orientalist.

[citation needed] She met her husband, Harold Dickson (1881 – 1959), in Marseilles, France, shortly after the end of World War I, where she was working in a bank.

[2] She wrote her autobiography, Forty Years in Kuwait, at the urging of Ian Fleming, author of the James Bond series of books.

As the wife of a British government figure, she was expected to assist her husband in his duties, primarily at social functions and by accompanying him on some of his travels across the region.

This contact continued after the death of her husband, as her knowledge of Kuwait and the feuds and rivalries among the kingdom's 600-strong royal family made her an indispensable resource for British ambassadors and visiting diplomats.

[citation needed] The house was ransacked during the invasion, but has since been restored by the Kuwaiti National Council for Culture, Arts and Letters, and is now a tourist attraction.

[11] The British Council in Kuwait offers the Dame Violet Dickson Scholarship to Kuwaiti women to encourage them to continue their postgraduate studies in the UK.

[12] Papers and photographs by Violet Dickson are held at the Middle East Centre Archive, St Antony's College, Oxford University.