Major

Major

Major is a rank of commissioned officer, with corresponding ranks existing in almost every military in the world.When used unhyphenated, in conjunction with no other indicator of rank, the term refers to the rank just senior to that of an Army captain and just below the rank of lieutenant colonel. ...

 A. L. Holt MBE MC (1896 - 1971) was a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 military officer and explorer.

In the 1920s when a member of the Royal Engineers

Royal Engineers

The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually just called the Royal Engineers , and commonly known as the Sappers, is one of the corps of the British Army....

, Holt led a number of motorized expeditions through the deserts of Arabia, the first time such long journeys had been undertaken with such a large number of vehicles. Holt was particularly fond of Ford cars, which he found eminently suited to such purposes.

Holt traveled on occasion with St. John Philby

St. John Philby

Harry St John Bridger Philby CIE , also known as Jack Philby or Sheikh Abdullah , his Arabic name, was an Arabist, explorer, writer, and British colonial office intelligence officer...

 and Gerard Leachman

Gerard Leachman

Brevet Lieut.-Colonel Gerard Evelyn Leachman CIE DSO , was a British soldier and intelligence officer who travelled extensively in Arabia.Leachman was commissioned into the Royal Sussex Regiment and served in India and in the Boer War...

.

In 1923 he proposed a suitable route for a transarabian railway which he had personally surveyed using Ford cars.

"I have taken a convoy of Fords 350 miles in the desert without touching water. The extraordinary advantage of this in reconnaissance needs no emphasis."

The railway was never built.