T. E. Lawrence
Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Edward Lawrence,
CB,
DSO,
Legion of Honour (
August 16,
1888 –
May 19,
1935), professionally known as
T.E. Lawrence and, later,
T.E. Shaw, but most famously known as
Lawrence of Arabia, gained international renown for his role as a
British liaison officer during the
Arab Revolt of
1916 to
1918. His very public image was in some part the result of U.S. traveller and journalist
Lowell Thomas's sensationalised reportage of the Revolt, as well as Lawrence's autobiographical account,
Seven Pillars of Wisdom. Many Arabs consider him a folk hero for joining in their fight for freedom from both
Ottoman and
European rule; many Britons count him among their country's greatest war heroes.
Lawrence was born in
Tremadog,
Caernarfonshire,
North Wales, of mixed
English and
Scottish ancestry. His father,
Sir Thomas Chapman, seventh Baronet of
Westmeath in
Ireland, had escaped a reportedly tyrannical wife to live with his daughters' governess,
Sarah Junner, with whom he had five sons. The couple lived at 2
Polstead Road (now with a
blue plaque) in
Oxford, under the names of Mr and Mrs Lawrence. Their son Thomas Edward attended the
City of Oxford High School for Boys, where one of the four
houses is now named "Lawrence" in his honour. In about
1905, Lawrence ran away from home and served for a few weeks as a boy soldier with the
Royal Garrison Artillery at
St Mawes Castle in
Cornwall; he was bought out.[
1]
From
1907, Lawrence was educated at
Jesus College, Oxford, graduating with
First Class Honours after submitting a highly-acclaimed thesis entitled
The influence of the Crusades on European Military Architecture – to the end of the 12th century, for which he did archaeological field research in France and the Middle East.
On completing his degree in
1910, he commenced postgraduate research in medieval pottery with a Senior
Demy at
Magdalen College, Oxford, which he abandoned after he was offered the opportunity to become a practising archaeologist in the Middle East. In December
1910 he sailed for
Beirut, and on arrival went to Jbail (
Byblos) where he studied
Arabic. He then went to work on the excavations at
Carchemish near to
Jerablus in the northern part of
Syria, where he worked under
D.G. Hogarth and
R. Campbell-Thompson of the
British Museum. It was while he was excavating ancient Mesopotamian sites that he met
Gertrude Bell, who had an influence on him for much of his time in the Middle East.
In the late summer of
1911 he returned to England for a brief sojourn and, by November, he was back en route to Beirut for a second season at Carchemish. Prior to returning to work he worked briefly with
William Flinders Petrie at
Kafr Ammar in
Egypt. At Carchemish he was to work with
Leonard Woolley. He continued making trips to the Middle East as a field archaeologist until the outbreak of
World War I. His extensive travels through
Arabia, his excursions, often on foot, living with the Arabs, wearing their clothes, learning their culture, language and local dialects, were to prove invaluable during the conflict.
In January
1914 Woolley and Lawrence were co-opted by the British military as an archaeological smokescreen for a British military survey of the
Sinai peninsula. At this time Lawrence visited
Aqaba and
Petra. From March to May, Lawrence worked again at Carchemish. Following the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914, on advice from
S.F. Newcombe, Lawrence did not enlist immediately, but held back until October.
Main article Arab RevoltOnce enlisted he was posted to
Cairo, where he worked for British Military Intelligence. Lawrence's intimate knowledge of the Arab people made him the ideal liaison between British and Arab forces and in October
1916 he was sent into the desert to report on the
Arab nationalist movements. During the war, he fought with Arab
irregular troops under the command of
Emir Faisal, a son of
Sherif Hussein of
Mecca, in extended
guerrilla operations against the armed forces of the
Ottoman Empire. Lawrence's major contribution to World War I was convincing Arab leaders to co-ordinate their revolt to aid British interests. He persuaded the Arabs not to drive the Ottomans out of
Medina, thus forcing the Turks to tie up troops in the city garrison. The Arabs were then able to direct most of their attention to the
Hejaz railway that supplied the garrison. This tied up more Ottoman troops, who were forced to protect the railway and repair the constant damage. In
1917 Lawrence arranged a joint action with the Arab irregulars and forces under
Auda Abu Tayi (until then in the employ of the Ottomans) against the strategically located port city of
Aqaba. He was promoted to
major in the same year. On
July 6, after a daring overland attack, Aqaba fell to Arab forces. Some 12 months later, Lawrence was involved in the capture of
Damascus in the final weeks of the war, and was promoted to
lieutenant-colonel in 1918.
As he did before the war, during the time he spent with the Arab irregulars, Lawrence adopted many local customs and traditions as his own, and soon became a close friend of Prince Faisal. He became especially known for wearing white Arabian garb (given to him by Prince Faisal, originally wedding robes given to Faisal as a hint) and riding camels in the desert. Lawrence gained extraordinary respect from the Arab populace.
During the closing years of the war he sought to convince his superiors in the British government that Arab independence was in their interests, with mixed success.
In
1918 he co-operated with war-correspondent
Lowell Thomas for a short period. During this time Thomas and his cameraman
Harry Chase shot much film and many photographs, which Thomas used in a highly lucrative show that toured the world after the war.
Lawrence was made a Commander in the
Order of the Bath and awarded the
Distinguished Service Order and the French
Legion of Honour, though in October 1918 he refused to be made a Knight Commander. In the words of
King George V, "He left me there with the box in my hand."
Immediately after the war Lawrence worked for the
Foreign Office, attending the
Paris Peace Conference between January and May as a member of Faisal's delegation.
Lowell Thomas's show (seen by 4 million people in the post-war years) gave Lawrence great publicity. Until then Lawrence had little influence but newspapers began to report his opinions. Consequently he served for much of
1921 as an advisor to
Winston Churchill at the
Colonial Office.
Lawrence was ambivalent about Thomas's publicity (calling him a "vulgar man"), though he saw Thomas's show several times. Starting in
1922 Lawrence attempted to join the
Royal Air Force under the name "Ross". His cover was soon blown, however, and he was forced out of the RAF, changed his name to "Shaw", and in
1923 joined the
Royal Tank Corps. He was unhappy there and repeatedly petitioned to rejoin the RAF, which finally admitted him in August
1925. A fresh burst of publicity after the publication of
Revolt in the Desert (see below) resulted in his assignment to a remote base in
British India in late
1926, where he remained until the end of
1928, forced to return to the UK after rumours began to circulate that he was involved in espionage activities.
|
T. E. Lawrence on a Brough Superior motorcycle at Cranwell, c1925/6. |
He purchased several small plots of land in
Chingford, built a hut and swimming pool there, and visited frequently. This was demolished in
1930 when the
Corporation of London acquired the land.
He continued serving in the RAF, specialising in high-speed boats and professing happiness, and it was with considerable regret that he left the service at the end of his enlistment in March 1935.
A few weeks later he was mortally injured in a
Brough Superior motorcycle accident in
Dorset, at the age of 46, close to his cottage,
Clouds Hill near
Wareham (now run by the
National Trust and open to the public). He died six days later.
Although some sources mistakenly claim that Lawrence was buried in
St. Paul's Cathedral, only a bust of him was placed there, in the Crypt. His final resting place is the Dorset village of
Moreton; even in death, Lawrence tried to remain anonymous. Moreton Estate, which borders Bovington Camp, was owned by family cousins the Frampton family. Lawrence rented and subsequently purchased Clouds Hill from the Framptons. He was a frequent visitor to their home at Okers Wood House, and he corresponded with Louisa Frampton for many years.
On his death, his mother wrote to the Framptons, and due to time constraints asked if there was space in their family plot at Moreton Church. Attendees included Sir Winston and Lady Churchill, and his coffin was transported on the Frampton estate
bier.
Lawrence was a prolific writer throughout his life. A large proportion of his writing was epistolary; he often sent several letters a day. There are several collections of his letters in print, the editors' expurgations in places obtrusive. His correspondents included many notable figures of the time, including
George Bernard Shaw,
Edward Elgar,
Winston Churchill,
Robert Graves, and
E.M. Forster. The many letters he sent to G.B. Shaw's wife, Charlotte, offer a very revealing side of his character.
During his lifetime, he published four major texts. Two were translations, the first being
Homer's
Odyssey, and the second
The Forest Giant, an otherwise forgotten work of
French fiction. He received a flat fee for the second, and negotiated a generous fee plus royalties on the first.
Seven Pillars
Seven Pillars of Wisdom is Lawrence's masterpiece. In
1919, he was elected to a seven-year research fellowship at
All Souls College, Oxford, and this provided him with support while he worked on the book. As a whole, the book is a memoir of his experiences during the war, but parts of it also serve as essays on military strategy, Arabian culture and geography, and other topics.
Seven Pillars is an immense work, extremely dense with complicated syntax, but Lawrence clearly communicates through his prose and the book is stunningly beautiful, poignant, and at times even comic.
Lawrence re-wrote
Seven Pillars of Wisdom three times; once "blind" after he lost the manuscript while changing trains. As to the truth of his narrative, with Lawrence it is always difficult to untangle reality from mythology, and the man himself seemed to enjoy mingling fact and fiction; his complex relationship with himself results in passages which alternately belittle his accomplishments and influence and expand on his role in the revolt.
Seven Pillars is a fascinating work as an autobiography, a study of history, or psychology.
The accusation that Lawrence repeatedly exaggerated his feats has been a persistent theme among Lawrence biographers and other researchers. The list of his rumoured "embellishments" in
Seven Pillars is very long, though many such allegations have been disproved with time. However, some exaggerations by him are certain: for example, his alleged crossing of the Sinai in two days, which actually took him three days, and his alleged number of battle wounds, which in reality were very few. Other exaggerations by him are therefore likely.
George Bernard Shaw helped Lawrence edit the book, aiding him especially with grammatical errors. In the preface to
Seven Pillars, Lawrence offered his "...thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Bernard Shaw for countless suggestions of great value and diversity: and for all the present semicolons."
The first edition was to be published in
1926 as a high-priced private subscription edition. But afraid that the public would think he would make a substantial income from the book, and stating that it was written as a result of his War service, he vowed not to take any money from itâ€"and indeed he did not, as the sale price was one-third of the production costs! This left a substantial debt, which Lawrence needed to address immediately.
Revolt in the Desert
Revolt in the Desert was an abridged version of
Seven Pillars. Also published in
1926, he undertook a needed but reluctant publicity exercise, which resulted in a best seller. Again he vowed not to take any fees from the publication, partly to appease the subscribers to
Seven Pillars who had paid dearly for their editions, and by the fourth reprint in
1927 the debt from
Seven Pillars was paid off. As Lawrence left for military service in
India at the end of
1926, he set up the "Seven Pillars Trust" with his friend
DG Hogarth as a trustee, in which he made over the copyright and any surplus income of
Revolt in the Desert. He later told Hogarth that he had "made the Trust final, to save myself the temptation of reviewing it, if
Revolt turned out a best seller."
The resultant trust paid off the debt, and Lawrence then invoked a clause in his publishing contract to halt publication of the abridgement in the UK. However, he allowed both American editions and translations, which resulted in a substantial flow of income. The trust paid income either into a very quietly run educational fund for RAF officers who lost their lives or were invalided as a result of service, or more substantially into the set up by
Air-Marshal Trenchard, founder of the RAF, in
1919.
After his death
He also authored
The Mint, a memoir of his experiences as an enlisted man in the Royal Air Force. Working from a notebook kept while enlisted, Lawrence wrote of the daily lives of enlisted men and his desire to be a part of something larger than himself: the
Royal Air Force. The book, with its sparse and sharp prose, is stylistically very different from
Seven Pillars of Wisdom. It was published posthumously, edited by his brother Prof. A.W. Lawrence.
After Lawrence's death, as his sole beneficiary his brother inherited all Lawrence's estate and his copyrights. To pay death duties, he sold the US copyright of
Seven Pillars of Wisdom (subscribers' text) outright to
Doubleday Doran in
1935. Doubleday still control publication rights of this version of the text of
Seven Pillars of Wisdom in the USA. He then in
1936 split the remaining assets of the estate, giving "Clouds Hill" house and many copies of less substantial or historical letters to the nation via the National Trust, and then set up two trusts to control interests in Lawrence's residual copyrights. To the original Seven Pillars Trust he assigned the copyright in the
Seven Pillars of Wisdom, as a result of which it was given its first general publication. To the Letters and Symposium Trust, he assigned the copyright in
The Mint and all Lawrence's letters, which were subsequently edited and published in the book
T. E. Lawrence by his Friends (ed. A.W. Lawrence, London, Cape, 1937).
A substantial amount of income went directly to the RAF Benevolent fund, or for archaeological, environmental or academic projects. The two trusts were amalgamated in 1986, and on the death of Prof. A.W. Lawrence, also acquired all the remaining rights to Lawrence's works it had not owned, plus rights to all of Prof A.W. Lawrence's works.
While his works include one notably
homoerotic passage, the details of his sexual orientation and experience are contested. The field is divided between scholars working to restore the history of
same-sex erotic relationships, who identify a strong homoerotic element in Lawrence's life, and those, including his official biographer, who are seen as "attempt[ing] to defend Lawrence against 'charges' of homosexuality". [
2]
|
Selim Ahmed; photograph by T. E. Lawrence. |
Seven Pillars of Wisdom is dedicated to "S.A.", with a poem that begins::''"I loved you, so I drew these tides of men into my hands
and wrote my will across the sky in starsTo gain you Freedom, the seven-pillared worthy house,:''that your eyes might be shining for me
When I came."(Some editions of
Seven Pillars give the last line of this stanza as "When we came"; the 1922 Oxford text, however, has "When I came". This poem was heavily edited by
Robert Graves.)
On the subject of the war, Lawrence said: "I liked a particular Arab, and thought that freedom for the race would be an acceptable present."
Though it has been argued that these initials identify a man, a woman, a nation, or some combination of the above, the explanation that has gained currency at the present time is that S.A. is "Selim Ahmed", nicknamed Dahoum, a fourteen-year-old Arab with whom Lawrence is known to have been close. The two met while working at a pre-war archaeological dig. Lawrence had the boy move in with him, carved a nude sculpture of him which he placed on the roof of the house, and brought Ahmed on holiday to England. The two were separated in 1914, and were never to see each other again as Dahoum died of
typhus in 1918.
Boston University professor Matthew Parfitt maintains that "In
Seven Pillars, and more explicitly in his correspondence, Lawrence suggests that his distaste for the entire exploit in its last triumphant days was largely owing to news of his friend's death."
Others maintain that Dahoum was merely a
close friend of the type common in the 19th and early 20th centuries, which often involved non-sexual physical contact. Lawrence himself maintained that "S.A." was a composite character.
In
Seven Pillars, Lawrence claims that while reconnoitering
Deraa in Arab disguise he was captured and tortured. Many critics have read this account as describing homosexual rape, and have used this to suggest that Lawrence was homosexual. The facts of the event, beyond reported accounts that Lawrence did bear the scars of whippings from some period, are unrecoverable. Lawrence's own statements and actions concerning the "incident" were ambiguous, contributing to the confusion. For example, he removed from his war diary the page containing the daily entries for the November 1917 week in question, so that no one ever saw that page and whatever words it may have contained about Deraa.
Reports from a man whom Lawrence hired to give him beatings make it clear that he had unconventional tastes, notably
masochism. Years after the Deraa incident, Lawrence embarked on a masochistic programme of physical rehabilitation, including diet, exercise and swimming nude in the
North Sea. He recruited younger men from the service and told them an elaborate story about a fictitious uncle who, because Lawrence had stolen money from him, demanded that he enlist in the service and that he be beaten. Lawrence wrote letters purporting to be from the uncle ("R." or "The Old Man") instructing the men in how he was to be beaten, yet also asking them to persuade him to stop this. This treatment continued until his death (Mack, 1976). The authenticity of some of these claims and reports is disputed, but others are certain.
A long-lost map of the Middle East belonging to Lawrence has been put on exhibition at the
Imperial War Museum in London. It was drafted by Lawrence and presented to the British Cabinet in 1918.
The map provides an alternative to present-day borders in the region, based on sensibilities shown by the local population. He includes a separate state for the Armenians and groups the people of present-day Syria, Jordan and parts of Saudi Arabia in another state based on tribal patterns and commercial routes.
* According to Lawrence's RAF enlistment medical file of
March 12,
1923, he was 5 ft 5.5 in (1.66 m) tall, weighed 130 lb (59 kg), had "scars on his buttocks", "three superficial scars on lower part of his back" and "four superficial scars left side." He was also
circumcised.
* Oxford legend holds that, while an undergraduate at
Jesus College, Lawrence crept into the
deer park of
Magdalen at night and stole a deer; by the morning, he had managed to transfer the deer to the front quad of
All Soul's, the college which is normally off limits for undergraduates.
* A road in the
Mount Batten area of
Plymouth, where Lawrence was stationed, has been named Lawrence Road in his honour.
* The character of Private Napoleon Meek in George Bernard Shaw's
Too True to Be Good is inspired by Lawrence. Private Meek is depicted as being thoroughly conversant with the language and lifestyle of tribals. He repeatedly enlists with the army, quitting whenever he is offered a promotion.
* Portrayed twice on film, by Peter O'Toole in Lawrence of Arabia and in a made-for-TV movie, A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia (1990), by Ralph Fiennes, both of whom are much taller than the real Lawrence: O'Toole stands 6'2" (1.88 metres) while Fiennes stands 6'1" (1.85 m).
* One of his favourite weapons was a Colt Peacemaker revolver. As recounted in Thomas's With Lawrence In Arabia'', Lawrence, while on a pre-war archaeological trip to Mesopotamia, was attacked by an Arab bandit intent on stealing his gun. However, the Arab did not understand the revolver's firing mechanism, and was forced to leave Lawrence unconscious but alive. After this incident, Lawrence's weapon of choice was the Peacemaker, and he almost always carried one for good luck. Lawrence was also known to carry a
Mauser Broomhandle, and later, a
Colt M1911 semi-automatic.
*His
SMLE Mk III rifle, given to him by Emir Feisal, is on display in the Imperial War Museum, London.
Ross, a play based on his life by
Terence Rattigan.
*
Lawrence of Arabia, a film based on his life starring
Peter O'Toole*
Lawrence of Arabia: The Authorised Biography of T.E. Lawrence*
Hashemite*
Kingdom of Jordan*
Kingdom of IraqSeven Pillars of Wisdom, an account of his part in the
Arab Revolt. (ISBN 0848805623)
Revolt in the Desert, an abridged version of
Seven Pillars of Wisdom. (ISBN 1566192757)
The Mint, an account of his service in the
Royal Air Force. (ISBN 0393001962)
Crusader Castles, his Oxford thesis. (ISBN 019822964-X)
The Odyssey of Homer, translation from the Greek. (ISBN 0195068181)
The Forest Giant, by Adrien Le Corbeau, novel, translation from the French, 1924.
The Letters of T.E. Lawrence, selected and edited by Malcolm Brown. (ISBN 0460047337)
The Letters of T.E. Lawrence, edited by
David Garnett. (ISBN 0883558564)
Lawrence of Arabia: The Battle for the Arab World, Director James Hawes. PBS Home Video, October 21, 2003. (ASIN B0000BWVND)
*
Lawrence of Arabia: The Authorised Biography of T.E. Lawrence, by Jeremy Wilson, 1989 (ISBN 0689119348)
Lawrence and the Arabian Adventure, by
Robert Graves, 1928 (Doubleday, Doran and Company, Inc.).
*
338171 T.E. (Lawrence of Arabia) by
Victoria Ocampo, 1963.
*
A Prince of Our Disorder: The Life of T. E. Lawrence, by John E. Mack, 1976 (Little, Brown), ISBN 0316542326.
*"Creation Out of the Void: The Making of a Hero, an Epic, a world: T.E. Lawrence", by Victoria K. Carchidi, 1987, diss. U.Pennsylvania (Ann Arbor, MI University Microfilms International).
The Weapons Of Lawrence of Arabia, http://www.sightm1911.com/lib/history/telawrence.htm
*
telawrence.net: Lawrence's writings online*
Fact file from Lawrence biographer*
The T.E. Lawrence Society*
Site dedicated to Lawrence and his Brough Superior motorcycles*
Lawrence of Arabia's Dorset*
T. E. Lawrence and S. A. – The puzzle solved, by Elizabeth L. (Betty) McKenzie *
Who was S.A.?, by Yagitani Ryôko*
Lawrence of Arabia: True and false (an Arab view) by Lucy Ladikoff*
Clouds Hill, Wareham, Dorset – The rural retreat of T.E. Lawrence*
T.E. Lawrence and his Cameras from the
Museum of the History of Science,
Oxford*
Study of Lawrence's attitudes to the Arabs*
T. E. Lawrence's copyrights*
T. E. Lawrence At Find A Grave
