Bullard: First Lady of one of the last British agents in the UAE
HUSBAND JULIAN WAS POSTED TO THE TRUCIAL STATES FROM 1968-1971
It was the last week of September in 1968, Seattle, when the Boeing 747 was unveiled to the world and the age of the jumbo jet had begun.
Nearly 12,000 kilometres away, on September 28, Lady Margaret and her husband Sir Julian Bullard were flying to Dubai from Beirut, and landed on a 1,800-metre runway at Dubai Airport.
By World War II, the role of the political agent had already been introduced. It was their responsibility to represent the British government. Julian Bullard, who was born in Athens 1928, had been working for HM Foreign Service since 1953, and during his spare time, had taken up the challenge to learn Arabic while serving in a number of posts in Vienna, Amman, Bonn and Moscow.
Being familiar with the Arabic language and the Arab world proved to be a great advantage to Bullard, whose credentials led him to become one of the last political agents in Dubai from 1968 to early 1971.
It was very dusty in those days. It’s amazing how everything looks, as if it has just been washed. And the standard of food is incredible.”
Margaret Bullard | Wife of Julian Bullard
Golden arrival
Thirteen years after her husband’s death, Margaret, now 90, returned to Dubai for a visit. “The airport was just one office with a tarmac runway, and on it, were hundreds of trolleys labelled ‘Gold’. There was a firm called Johnson Matthey in England that dealt with gold, and there were boxes and boxes labelled Johnson Matthey, Johnson Matthey, Johnson Matthey,” laughed Margaret, as she remembered her astonishment in seeing so much gold at one time.
Within the first four days of the couple’s arrival to Dubai, Bullard received his first assignment from England and was given the task of confirming the shaikhs’ boycott against Rhodesia [currently Zimbabwe], which was seeking independence from the Crown.
Margaret recollected the day when Dubai Creek was dredged. “So an English company sent around experts and there was a meeting, which my husband and important people attended and they all recommended that a port be built with a berth for four ships at one time,” she said.
“And then Shaikh Rashid looked and said he wanted 16 berths! I think at the end they agreed on 15 berths. The very first month when the port was finished, every single berth was full and they had all come for water because this was the only port in the Gulf where there was sweet water.”
First library
The Bullards resided in a compound along Al Seef Road, which is now known as the British Embassy. Dubai’s first library too started by accident in 1969, thanks to Bullard, who converted his unused office in Deira.
After spending some time in Dubai, Bullard soon became known as Al Mu’tamad (the certified), and was given a great deal of respect by the local people.
And what does Margaret think of the change?
“The startling thing is how clean it is. It was very dusty in those days. It’s amazing how everything looks, as if it has just been washed. And the standard of food is incredible, you wouldn’t have thought Dubai was the place for delicious food in the days when I was here.”