Bertram Thomas
Bertram Thomas (June 13, 1892 - December 27, 1950), was an English civil servant, who was the first documented Westerner to cross the Rub' al Khali (Empty Quarter).
He was born in Easton-in-Gordano near Bristol and in 1918, during WWI he was posted to Mesopotamia, where he got a job with the Sultan of Muscat and Oman as the Finance Minister, a post he held until 1932.
He passed away in Cairo in 1950.