Abstract
BRIGADIER-GENERAL SIR PERCY SYKES, who died on June 11, was an authority on Persia on account of the many years he lived there, his historical writings, and his numerous journeys through it. He also made exacting expeditions in Central Asia. He travelled with a historian's bias which served to people desolate roads and to link dreary adobe ruins or scattered shards of pottery with happier and perhaps splendid days in the past. During much of his travelling life he had the advantage of official status and prestige, but this was less important than the courage and audaciousness with which he flouted the dangers of travels fifty years ago, and the tough body and sturdy health which enabled him to endure hardships of the road and stays in infected Persian towns. No tales of insecurity would deflect him from his purpose, nor would the very real risk of a clash with slave raiders deter him from following a route chosen because it was little known or infrequently used.
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HARRISON, J. Brigadier-General Sir Percy Sykes. Nature 156, 104 (1945). https://doi.org/10.1038/156104a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/156104a0