László Adolf Ede György Mária Almásy de Zsadány et Törökszentmiklós (; ; 22 August/3 November 1895 – 22 March 1951) was a Hungarian aristocrat, motorist, desert explorer, aviator, Scout-leader, and sportsman.
Michael Ondaatje modeled his protagonist on him in the novel The English Patient (1992). The movie adaptation of the same name, made in 1996, also based its protagonist on Almasy.
Early life Almásy was born in Borostyánkő, Austria-Hungary (Bernstein im Burgenland, Austria), into a famous (his father was zoologist and ethnographer György Almásy), and, from 1911 to 1914, was educated at Berrow School, situated in a private house in Eastbourne, England, where he was tutored by Daniel Wheeler.Eastbourne Local History Society Newsletter Nr 143
World War I During World War I, Almásy joined the 11th Hussars along with his brother János. Almásy saw action against the Serbs, and then the Russians on the Eastern Front. In 1916, he transferred to the Austro-Hungarian Imperial and Royal Aviation Troops. After being shot down over Northern Italy in March 1918, Almásy served the remainder of the war as a flight instructor.
Interwar period After the war, Almásy returned to join the Eastbourne Technical Institute, in East Sussex, England. From November 1921 to June 1922, he lodged at the same address in Eastbourne. He was a member of the pioneering Eastbourne Flying Club.
Returning to Hungary, Almásy became the personal secretary of the Bishop of Szombathely, , one of the leading figures of the abortive post-war Habsburg restoration attempt. The young Almásy became involved in these events by accident as the driver of Bishop Mikes when King Karl IV of Hungary returned to Hungary in 1921 to claim the throne, and was helped by Mikes to reach Budapest (from where he was politely but firmly sent back to Austria by Miklós Horthy, the Regent of Hungary). After he was introduced, the King continued to refer to him as Count Almásy, confusing László with another branch of the family. This was the basis for Almásy using the title to his advantage, mostly in Egypt among the Egyptian royalty to open doors that would have remained closed to a commoner. However, he himself admitted in private conversations that the title was not legitimate.Kubassek, János, A Szahara bűvöletében (Enchanted by the Sahara), Panoráma, Budapest 1999
After 1921, Almásy worked as a representative of the Austrian car firm Steyr Automobile in Szombathely, Hungary, and won many car races in the Steyr colours. He managed to persuade a wealthy friend, Prince Antal Eszterházy, to join him in driving a Steyr from Alexandria to Khartoum, before embarking on a hunting expedition to the Dinder River, a feat which had never before been accomplished by an ordinary automobile.Almásy, László, Autóval Szudánba (With Motorcar to the Sudan), Franklin, Budapest 1929
The 1926 drive from Egypt to the Sudan along the Nile proved to be the turning point in his life. Almásy developed an interest in the area and later returned there to drive and hunt. He also demonstrated Steyr vehicles in desert conditions in 1929 with two Steyr lorries and led his first expedition to the desert. In 1931 Almásy made arrangements with a Cairo–Cape Town expedition, led by Captain G. Malins, to make a detour and accompany him to Uweinat and northern Sudan on what was planned to be the first exploration of the Libyan Desert by aeroplane. He was accompanied by Count Nándor Zichy. They took off from in Budapest on 21 August in a De Havilland Gipsy Moth that had been purchased by Zichy in England a few weeks earlier. Four days later they crashed in a storm near Aleppo. Both survived with scratches only, but the aircraft was a total wreck. The Syrian papers reported them dead, and the Malins expedition left Cairo without them.Almásy, László, Levegőben... homokon... (In Air... on Sand...), Franklin, Budapest 1937
From the beginnings of Scouting, he was a member of the movement. In 1921 Almásy became the International Commissioner of the Hungarian Scout Association. With Count Pál Teleki, he took part in organizing the 4th World Scout Jamboree in Gödöllő, Hungary, where Almásy presented the Air Scouts to Robert Baden-Powell on 9 August 1933.Bierman, John (2004), The Secret Life of Laszlo Almasy, Viking (ed.), ISBN 9780670914173 p. 19.
Explorer
In 1932, Almásy embarked on an expedition to find the legendary Zerzura, "The Oasis of the Birds," with Sir Robert Clayton, Squadron Leader H.W.G.J. Penderel and Patrick Clayton. The expedition used both cars and a De Havilland Gipsy Moth aeroplane owned by Sir Robert Clayton. While Almásy went with two cars to Kufra Oasis, Sir Robert and Penderel discovered a valley with green vegetation inside the Gilf Kebir plateau, which they presumed to be one of the three hidden valleys of Zerzura. Their attempts to reach the mouth of the valley by car failed.Almásy, László, Ismeretlen Szahara (Unknown Sahara), Franklin, Budapest 1935
Later in 1932, Almásy's sponsor and travel companion Sir Robert Clayton East-Clayton died of acute spinal poliomyelitis contracted within two months of completing the spring 1932 expedition to the Gilf Kebir. (Not on crash-landing as described in The English Patient but from infection possibly picked up on a desert expedition. However, East-Clayton's wife Dorothy, also a pilot, did die in a peculiar plane accident, at Brooklands on 15 September 1933.)
Despite the setbacks, Almásy succeeded in organizing another Zerzura expedition for the spring of 1933, this time with the desert explorer Prince Kamal el Dine Hussein as his sponsor. He was accompanied by Squadron Leader H.W.G.J. Penderel, the Austrian writer Richard Bermann (pen name Arnold Hollriegel) and the German cinematographer and photographer . This expedition succeeded in entering the valley discovered the previous year, and circumstantial evidence collected from a Tibou elder at Kufra Oasis confirmed the identity of the valleys as Zerzura. Later on this expedition, Almasy succeeded in entering Wadi Talh, (the third valley of Zerzure), and at the very end of the expedition Almásy, together with Lodovico di Caporiacco, discovered the prehistoric rock paintings of Ain Dua at Jebel Uweinat.Hollriegel, ArnoldZarzura, die Oase der kleinen vögel, Orell Füssli, Zürich 1938
In the autumn of 1933, Almásy embarked on a further expedition, this time with the noted German ethnographer Leo Frobenius, his assistant and draughtswoman Elisabeth Pauli (later Elisabeth Jensen). They copied and cataloged the known prehistoric rock art sites, and made a large number of new discoveries at Karkur Talh (Jebel Uweinat) and the famous Cave of Swimmers at Wadi Sora in the Gilf Kebir.Rhotert, HansLybische Felsbilder, L. C. Wittich, Darmstadt 1952
In the spring of 1934, Almásy led an expedition organised by the Royal Egyptian Automobile Club to the Gilf Kebir and Jebel Uweinat. The expedition erected a memorial tablet for Prince Kelam el Din (who died the previous year, giving another blow to Almásy's ambitions) at the southern tip of the Gilf Kebir plateau. The note left by the expedition now rests in the Heinrich Barth Institut in Köln.Monument to Prince Kemal el Din, accessed 20 Oct. 2013 At Jebel Uweinat Almásy visited the Sudan Defence Force camp commanded by Captain Francis Godfrey Bertram Arkwright, and together they made some new rock art discoveries at the south of Jebel Uweinat. Almásy also visited and copied a panel of paintings found by Captain Arkwright at Jebel Kissu.Almásy, László, Récentes Explorations dans le Désert Libyque Societé Royale de Geographie de l'Egypte, Cairo, 1936
In February 1935, Almásy and his colleague Hansjoachim von der Esch became the first Europeans to re-establish contact with the Magyarab tribe, living on an island of the Nile opposite Wadi Halfa in Nubia, who speak Arabic but are believed to be the descendants of Nubian women and Hungarian soldiers serving in the Ottoman army in the 16th century. The accounts of Almásy and von der Esch differ substantially. While Almásy presents the discovery as his own, von der Esch describes the encountervon der Esch, HansjoachimWeenak - die Karawane ruft, Brochhaus, Leipzig 1941 as having been made after Almásy left Wadi Halfa with Count Zsigmond Széchenyi and Jenő Horthy (a relation of Miklós Horthy) on a hunting trip to the Wadi Howar.Széchenyi, ZsigmondHengergő Homok (Roling Sand), Budapest 1936 As Almásy's only illustration shows a group of Egyptian fellahin surrounding a car (no car could have made it over to the island), while von der Esch shows several photos taken on the island, the story of the latter is more likely to be true.
In April 1935, again accompanied by Hansjoachim von der Esch, Almásy explored the Great Sand Sea from Ain Dalla to Siwa Oasis, the last remaining 'blank spot' untouched by earlier explorers or Patrick Clayton's surveys. In his book Almásy claims to have been in the service of the Egyptian government, a statement which led some authors to claim that Almásy was a cartographer of the Libyan Desert in a formal capacity.Török, Zsolt. "László Almásy: The Real 'English patient' - The Hungarian Desert Explorer." Földrajzi Közlemények 121.1-2 (1997): 77-86 However, as at the time Patrick Clayton was still the "official" Libyan Desert desert surveyor of the Desert Survey department of the Survey of Egypt, and the two were definitely not on good terms,Clayton, Peter, Desert Explorer (A Biography of Colonel P.A. Clayton), Zerzura Press, Cargreen 1998 this claim is very unlikely, with no surviving documentary proof.
In 1939, with the help of Hansjoachim von der Esch, Almásy published a German edition of a compilation (not the entire text) of selected chapters from his books originally published in Hungarian.Almásy, Ladislaus E, Unbekannte Sahara. Mit Flugzeug und Auto in der Libyschen Wüste (The Unknown Sahara. By Aeroplane and Car in the Libyan Desert), Brockhaus, Leipzig 1939
Almásy never had the means to finance his own expeditions; he was always reliant on financial backers, some of whom raised the suspicion of the British authorities in Egypt. By 1934, both the Italians and the British had suspected him of spying for the other side (though there is no conclusive proof that he did so for either); in 1935, he was refused permission by the British military authorities to make another expedition to Uweinat.Foreign Office corresponcence, National Archives, London, accessed 20 Oct. 2013 His attention turned to another passion, aviation, and he was deeply involved with setting up gliding activities in Egypt under the auspices of the Royal Egyptian Aviation Club (the president of which, Taher Pasha, was also providing accommodation for Almásy). The Almaza Air Base was named after him by the Egyptian government.
World War II
After the outbreak of World War II in 1939, Almásy had to return to Hungary. The British suspected that he was a spy for the Italians, and vice versa. While there is no evidence to suggest that he was involved in any clandestine intelligence gathering prior to the war, he was clearly not welcomed by authorities on either side of the Egypt-Libya border.Kelly, Saul, The Hunt for Zerzura, John Murray, London, 2002 Hungary formally joined the Axis powers by signing the Tripartite Pact on 20 November 1940. Almásy joined the Royal Hungarian Air Force (RHAF). On the 8th of February, 1941 he, as a Hungarian officer was commanded to the Abwehr, to the Afrika Corps.