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Bertram Sidney Thomas was an English civil servant who is the first documented Westerner to cross the Rub' al Khali. He was also a scientist who practiced craniofacial anthropometry,
He was born in Pill near Bristol and educated at Trinity College, Cambridge. After working for the Civil Service in the General Post Office, he served in Belgium during World War I before being posted to the Somerset Light Infantry in Mesopotamia between 1916 and 1918. He worked as an Assistant Political Officer in this country from 1918 to 1922, and Assistant British Representative in Transjordan, from 1922 to 1924. He was appointed as Finance Minister and Wazir to the Sultan of Muscat and Oman, a post he held from 1925 to 1932. In this capacity, he undertook a number of expeditions into the desert, and became the first European to cross the Rub' Al Khali from 1930 and 1931, a journey he described in Arabia Felix, in which he described this desert’s animals, inhabitants, and culture.
He was awarded the OBE in 1920 and CMG in 1949.
Besides Arabia Felix, he wrote several other books, including The Arabs: The Epic Life Story of a People Who Have Left Their Deep Impress on the World.
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