Contents lists
Updated June 2012
T. E. Lawrence to his family
Carchemish
May 29, 1911
Letter about Prof. Petrie come in: am glad it appeals to you: you will find out more about it and our chances from Mr. Hogarth than I know. I fear a second season is a little less than likely. Have found this week only a second Hittite seal: and some walls of unburnt brick. Am not going to write more: I develop tonight, which means an hour's work: and have been making notes of the pottery and photographed objects all the evening: we are taking all the small objects now a days: at least I am taking them.
The Rabelais has come: a beautiful little edition and a great joy: very many thanks for the quickness of it. Thompson is one of these unhappy mortals who cannot or will not read French - but there he is a scientist.... All goes admirably. No more mosquitoes: a good deal of rain, which has interfered with the picking of the harvest. There is not a sickle in the place: you tear off the barley at its roots.
Our new commissaire is a gem: we have not only no trouble, but actually help and encouragement. The past month now looks like a nightmare: we sleep soundly now: do ditto!
Why did Bob join the anthropological Soc.? He can never be an anthropologist, or even a scientist, for he had predilections and opinions. I wish this house did not overflow with mice and rats and birds. Very many thanks to Father for his care of the roof: it is a great joy to feel that my coming out here has done no harm. I will not write to Sir J. Rhys: it would be too long after Lady Rhys' death, and would look officious.
We expect to have cleared up in a month: and then a week at Tell Ahmar: and I am off to Harran and Urfa. Miss Bell asked me to photograph some things in the first of these two places for her:- however I will send them to Mr. Hogarth - don't mind.
Frank had much better the Sudan or some such place than India: not only is there a chance of advancement, but there is less 'white glove' nonsense about it. In India he is always dancing on the skirts of society: out in the wilds he has a chance to do something: whether administrative, or anthropological or linguistic - or merely naturalising: at any rate something non-military. For these special posts a good degree is necessary.
N.
| Source: | HL 154-8 |
| 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