Draft:Joseph McPherson

Joseph Williams McPherson (1866–1946), commonly known as Bimbashi McPherson, was a British teacher, Egyptian government official, soldier and writer who spent most of his adult life in Egypt. He served in several capacities in the Egyptian government, including as a teacher and for a two year period from 1918, as Mamur Zapt (Head of the Secret Police in Cairo). He also served with the Egyptian Camel Transport Corps and the British Red Cross during the First World War.

McPherson developed a lifelong interest in Egyptian society, customs and religious life. After his retirement from government service, he published The Moulids of Egypt (1941), a study of Egyptian religious festivals. His extensive correspondence from Egypt was edited after his death and published by the BBC as Bimbashi McPherson - A Life in Egypt (1983), with a preface by Lawrence Durrell.

Early life and education

McPherson was born in Somerset in 1866, the youngest of six sons in a Scottish family that had moved south to England. His father had been an estate manager to the Duke of Gordon before becoming a supervisor at a mental hospital near Bristol.

He was educated at Clifton College in Bristol. In 1883 he won a scholarship to the Royal College of Science for Ireland in Dublin, and in 1887 obtained a further scholarship to Christ Church, Oxford, where he studied natural sciences and gained a first-class degree. During his time at Dublin he converted to Catholicism. After Oxford he entered the teaching profession.

Egypt

McPherson first travelled to Egypt in 1901 and remained there for most of the rest of his life. He initially worked as a teacher in the Egyptian Ministry of Education before roles as a lecturer and educational administrator. He also performed work for the Ministry of Agriculture.

He used his holidays to travel extensively through Egypt and other parts of the Middle East, developing a strong interest in Egyptian culture and society.

First World War

During the First World War, McPherson served in a number of capacities. He initially joined a volunteer infantry unit formed from members of the Gezira Sporting Club known as the "Pharaoh's Foot". He subsequently transferred to the British Red Cross and served aboard the hospital ship Neuralia, which evacuated wounded soldiers from the Gallipoli campaign.

He later served with the Egyptian Camel Transport Corps in the Sinai and Palestine campaign, including at the First Battle of Gaza and the Second Battle of Gaza.

In January 1918, McPherson became Mamur Zapt, a senior police and intelligence position in Cairo concerned with political crime, nationalist activity and secret societies. He attained the rank of Bimbashi, an Ottoman-derived title corresponding approximately to major.

Later career

Following the First World War, McPherson continued to work in Egyptian government service as Mamur Zapt, before being transferred to other roles in the Ministry of the Interior under Russell Pasha.

He retired from the Egyptian Public Service in 1924. He subsequently lived near Giza, where he established a small agricultural holding. He continued to travel, write and study Egyptian society and religious customs.

The Moulids of Egypt

McPherson's principal published work was The Moulids of Egypt (Egyptian Saints-Days), published in Cairo in 1941. The book examined the religious festivals known as moulids, including their historical origins, devotional practices and secular activities. It includes a foreword by E. E. Evans-Pritchard.

The book was translated into Arabic in 1999 by Abdel Wahab Bakr and published by the Egyptian General Book Organization, a government publishing house.

The book was republished in a new scholary edition in 2022, edited and annotated by Russell McGuirk and with a new foreword by Valerie Hoffman, in which she states that "there is no book other than McPherson’s that can serve as a guide for those who wish to observe a moulid".

Correspondence and legacy

McPherson wrote thousands of pages of letters during his years in Egypt, principally to members of his family. His correspondence was preserved after his death and became the basis for a BBC radio series and a subsequent book edited by his great-nephew John McPherson and Barry Carman.

The book, Bimbashi McPherson: A Life in Egypt, was published by the BBC in London in 1983. It was subsequently reissued as The Man Who Loved Egypt: Bimbashi McPherson in 1985. In the preface, Lawrence Durrell described him as "a fine scholar, accomplished linguist, as well as a bon viveur and man of action!".

In 2018, the British scholar Raphael Cormack reviewed McPherson's papers at the Bristol Records Office and described them as "an extremely useful resource for anyone working on Egypt".

McPherson's writings have also been used as a source for accounts of the Egyptian intelligence services.