Robert Byron

Robert Byron was born in Wembley in 1905. He attended Eton and Oxford but was expelled from the university. He developed his extensive knowledge of art and architectural history through travel. From 1929, he worked as a correspondent for the Daily Express. In 1933, he published First Russia, Then Tibet. A ten-month journey through the Middle East and Southeast Asia that same year provided the basis for his best-known work, The Road to Oxiana. In 1941, Byron was aboard a ship torpedoed en route to Cairo and was among the 52 passengers and crew members reported missing.