Roger Savory
Roger Savory (academic, spook) | ||||||||||||||
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Born | 27 January 1925 Peterborough, UK | |||||||||||||
Died | 17 February 2022 (Age 97) | |||||||||||||
Nationality | British, Canadian | |||||||||||||
Alma mater | SOAS, Oxford University | |||||||||||||
UK/Canadian Iranologist who attended the 1979 Bilderberg meeting, where one of the topics was The Implications Of Instability In The Middle East And Africa For The Western World. Special Operations Executive during WW2.
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Roger Mervyn Savory was a British-born Professor Emeritus at the University of Toronto who was an Iranologist and specialist on the Safavid dynasty (1501 to 1736).[1] He attended the 1979 Bilderberg meeting, where one of the topics was The Implications Of Instability In The Middle East And Africa For The Western World.
WW2 spook
In 1943, he was awarded a State Scholarship, jointly offered by the War Office and the Ministry of Information, to take an intensive course in Persian at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. Roger enlisted in the Intelligence Corps in 1944 and was posted to Iran in 1945. He held a number of posts in Iran, first attached to the Special Operations Executive branch of the British military intelligence, then the British Foreign Office until he was demobilized in September 1947.
Career
Savory was first introduced to Iranian studies as a young man between 1943 and 1947.[2] He started his formal education in Oxford under Professors Hamilton Gibb, Joseph Schacht and Richard Walzer. In 1950 he began lecturing on Persian at the school of SOAS in London.
He completed his Ph.D. under Ann Lambton (who played a role in the 1953 overthrow of Mohammed Mossadegh) and Vladimir Minorsky at SOAS in 1958.
He joined the faculty of University of Toronto in Canada, and was a major factor in establishing the University of Toronto as one of the forerunners of Middle Eastern and Iranian studies in North America.[3] Savory died on 17 February 2022, at the age of 97.[4]
Event Participated in
Event | Start | End | Location(s) | Description |
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Bilderberg/1979 | 27 April 1979 | 29 April 1979 | Austria Baden Clubhotel Schloss Weikersdorf | 27th Bilderberg, 95 guests, Austria |