Contents lists
Updated June 2012
T. E. Lawrence to D. G. Hogarth
Grand Continental Hotel
Cairo
15 Jan
Blank! Am in an office all day and every day, adding together scraps of information, and writing geographies from memory of little details. It is the dullest job to hear of, but not so bad in action. The preparations of the Turks seem to be slacking off: I'm afraid there is nothing more cheerful I can tell you.
Our particular job goes well. We all pulled together hard for a month to twist 'them' from what we thought was a wrong line they were taking - and we seem to have succeeded completely: so that we today have got all we want for the moment, and therefore feel absolutely bored.
News has come through that the Germans have laid a light line through the S. Gate, and are taking stone for the Kalaat at Jerablus. The bridge is being pushed ahead. I don't suppose that they will do serious harm merely to spite us: brutes they are. Syria is all turned upside down by the uncertainty of government measures. If last harvest had not been a record one things would not have lasted so long. As it is they will be quite happy till next spring. It seems to be a queer sort of happiness though. I'm afraid we'll never get our gang together again. This you will observe is the depression of complete success... because we really have scored a very big thing.
Salaam me to Leeds. I can't write to him, because office work is not exciting, and I haven't had an off afternoon to go and see the pyramids, and write him a little letter all about them. I hope to get away for a day in the end of this month.
Musil - the Austrian - is head guide to the General Staff in Damascus: queer things happen now a days! Moritz is also out there, and Meisner, building railways.
L.
You might address to me Continental Hotel, a print of any photos. of Beilan you have.
L.
| Source: | DG 191-2 |
| Checked: | jw/ |
| Last revised: | 1 January 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