Contents lists
Updated June 2012
T. E. Lawrence to his family
Cairo
10.10.16
Post out tonight, and as I did not
write last week I must this week. I noticed from a recent letter that
you had not heard of me for some time. I suppose a post must have
dropped out in that sunk French steamer. Anyway I wrote. I enclose 9
more stamps in this. The half and quarter piastre are not yet on sale.
Have been interrupted eleven times since last sentence. A telephone is
useful but a nuisance. I would like to know if my letters to you are
opened? Two interruptions here. Mr. Hogarth is due here on Friday, which
will be pleasant. He is so entirely unprofessional that he acts like a
breath of fresh air. (Telephone). Here is a story for Arnie. Storrs, of
the British Residency, went down to Jidda lately with the Holy Carpet.
When there he wanted to talk to the Sherif. So he went to the telephone,
and rang up No. i. Mecca, and began. In a few minutes he heard other
voices on the line, so he told the Sherif that someone was trying to
overhear their conversation. Sherif, very angry, rang up the Exchange,
and ordered all telephones in the Hejaz to be cut off for half an hour.
After which things went splendidly. The Sherif has a sense of humour,
and is doing well. His weakness is in military operations. Four
interruptions. We have added a new man to our bunch, one Ormsby-Gore, an
M.P... seems good.... Ismailia come up soon and amalgamate with us. Then
we are nearly 40 strong! There ought to be intelligence enough in the
bunch to down Turkey - but unfortunately half of them are only
door-posts and window frames! Things will go much more smoothly, though,
when we are all in touch. (Telephone). Arnie should read Spenser as
often as possible: not in large doses (4 more interruptions) but for a
few minutes at a time, and frequently. More interruptions - I think I
must give this up. It is too hopeless trying to write when soldiers keep
on rushing into one's room and throwing fresh papers into one's baskets.
I have three baskets now, and three tables, and they are all about knee
deep. (Telephone). When they get too bad I go out and see somebody
somewhere else in the building (this place is nearly as big as the War
Office) and come back and tear things up. More interruptions. I'm off.
(Telephone).
N.
P.S. - This evening is worse than usual.
N.
| Source: | HL 330-1 |
| Checked: | jw/ |
| Last revised: | 2 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