Geoffrey Edleston Wheeler was born in Bromley, Kent, England to Owen Wheeler, a Captain Army Reserve Officer, and his wife Eugenie. Wheeler followed in the footsteps of his father, an infantry officer, and was commissioned into the Queen's Royal West Surrey Regiment in 1915 as a second lieutenant, and he reached the rank of captain before the end of the war. In 1918 he transferred to the Indian army. He initially served in the 1/6th Gurkha Rifles, and later in the 7th Rajput Regiment. From 1919 to 1925 he was attached to General Staff as an intelligence officer covering India, Palestine and Malta. In 1926 Wheeler served in Mashhad, Iran as the British Military Attaché and he was stationed in Iraq from 1928–1931. Wheeler spent the next decade and a half in India where he severed in the External Affairs Department, the Ministry of Information and General Staff Army Headquarters. In 1946 Wheeler was stationed at the British embassy Teheran, Iran, where he served as both the Press and Oriental Councillor until he returned to London in 1950. He retired from the Indian Army in 1949 as a Lieutenant-Colonel. In Wheeler 1953 retired from government service and founded the Central Asian Research Centre in London. He served director of the center until 1968 and editor of its journal Central Asian Review, one of the main venues for Central Asian research. He also sat as the Chairman of the Editorial Board of the Journal of the Royal Central Asian Society from 1961–1966. Wheeler married Irena Bulatova in 1927, who died in 1973. They had one son. Wheeler died in Surrey, England. His memoirs "Fifty years of Asia" are located at Oxford University, St Antony's College in the Middle East Centre Archive. Wheeler's career is extensively covered in Myer's Islam and Colonialism: Western Perspective on Soviet Asia.
Writing
Wheeler's writing focused on the history of Central Asia from the time of the Russian conquest of the region in the mid-nineteenth century to Soviet occupation of Central Asia in the 20th century. Wheeler's work is notable because he was one of the few scholars working to promote Central Asian Studies at a time when the field was in decline due to travel and research restrictions Soviet authorities imposed on academics. Wheeler engaged in the debates that raged in Central Asia Studies during the Cold War: what was the nature of Soviet colonialism in Central Asia and how was Central Asian ethnic identity formed. His books and articles were widely read amongst scholars and appear in the holdings of academic libraries around the globe.
Works and Related Materials
Geoffrey Wheeler Collection: TS Memoirs ‘Fifty years of Asia.’ GB165-0298. Oxford University, St Antony's College, Middle East Centre Archive. NRA catalogue reference: NRA 20811 St Antony's College.
Schuyler, Eugene. Turkistan, Notes of a Journey in Russian Turkistan, Kokand, Bukhara and Kuldja. Ed. Geoffrey Wheeler. Abridged by K.E. West. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1966.
Spuler, Bertold. The Mongols in History. Translated by Geoffrey E. Wheeler. New York: Paragon Book Gallery, 1971.
Wheeler, Geoffrey. "British Policy in Central Asia in the Early Nineteenth Century. The Mission of Richmond Shakespeare." Central Asian Review. VI, No. 4.
Nationality and Nationalism in Soviet Muslim Asia.. Azad Bhavan, 1961.
"Religion and the Soviet State: a Dilemma of Power." National and Religious Consciousness in Soviet Islam. Ed. M. Hayward and W Fletcher. London: Pall Mall, 1969.
The Peoples of Soviet Central Asia: A Background Book. London: Bodley Head, 1966.
"Race Relations in Soviet Muslim Asia." Journal of the Royal Central Asian Society. 47, II..
"Russia and Islam: New Trends in Soviet Policy." Central Asian Review. 4, I.
Russia and China in Central Asia. Journal of the Royal Central Asian Society 54, III.
"Russia and the Middle East." Journal of the Royal Central Asian Society. 44, III.
"Russian Conquest and Colonization in Central Asia." Russian Imperialism from Ivan the Great to the Revolution Ed. Taras Hunczak. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press 1974.
