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Updated June 2012
T. E. Lawrence to his family
Jebail
22 January 1911
They have just found your note on the floor where it had dropped, and hidden itself. So you must have another sheet. Am glad Arnie saw Harlech. The group of the chimneys over the front wall are what I remembered chiefly after my first visit. The second time I was with Bob, and remember fairly well.
We had snow this morning, which covered all the beach to the breaking of the waves: such has not been for 40 years. Miss Holmes thought the wire was good news: but was very excited to know. Mr. Parfit does not live at all in Beyrout: but comes down on Saturday for the Sunday services only: I cannot go up to Ain Anub (his schools) for they are 8 hours drive from Beyrout. I will write to him, and will try to arrange a Sunday in Beyrout: when I am going North. Shall be interested to hear what Jesus Coll. does. You must offer to return the money, and if they refuse give them a silver mug: which Hall or Prys-Jones would arrange for Will. It should be about £5: but the odds are 1000 to 1 against their being generous. The film matter is getting serious. Father will be rather puzzled to know what to do with the 'house' if it is left on his hands: tho' I am glad it is to be concrete. Miss Holmes very ungrateful if she complains of me: for I have mended (on average) 2 things a day since I entered the house, and broken nothing. Mrs. Rieder is literary: which is a comfort to me: she has introduced me to Daudet's shorter pieces: all very good, printable. Don't give Mr. Hogarth anything for me, if you can help. Arnie will prove a serpent if he does not get the senior scholarship next year. Tell Father not to write overmuch: it is no great pleasure for him and for what else has he five sons? I told you Mrs. Kemmis' carpet was half-way only. It sticks there, still. Am making a careful survey of the castle, and reading Arabic with Miss Fareedah (who is wonderful) and Omar, Miss Holmes' protégé. I will have to reward them both somehow, since payment is impossible.
N.
| Source: | HL 128-9 |
| Checked: | jw/ |
| Last revised: | 8 April 2006 |
T. E. Lawrence chronology
1888 16 August: born at Tremadoc, Wales
1896-1907: City of Oxford High School for Boys
1907-9: Jesus College, Oxford, B.A., 1st Class Hons, 1909
1910-14: Magdalen College, Oxford (Senior Demy), while working at the British Museum's excavations at Carchemish
1915-16: Military Intelligence Dept, Cairo
1916-18: Liaison Officer with the Arab Revolt
1919: Attended the Paris Peace Conference
1919-22: wrote Seven Pillars of Wisdom
1921-2: Adviser on Arab Affairs to Winston Churchill at the Colonial Office
1922 August: Enlisted in the Ranks of the RAF
1923 January: discharged from the RAF
1923 March: enlisted in the Tank Corps
1923: translated a French novel, The Forest Giant
1924-6: prepared the subscribers' abridgement of Seven Pillars of Wisdom
1927-8: stationed at Karachi, then Miranshah
1927 March: Revolt in the Desert, an abridgement of Seven Pillars, published
1928: completed The Mint, began translating Homer's Odyssey
1929-33: stationed at Plymouth
1931: started working on RAF boats
1932: his translation of the Odyssey published
1933-5: attached to MAEE, Felixstowe
1935 February: retired from the RAF
1935 19 May: died from injuries received in a motor-cycle crash on 13 May
1935 21 May: buried at Moreton, Dorset