Contents lists
Updated June 2012
T. E. Lawrence to his family
Azrak
14.11.17
I wonder if you can find this place:- it's out in the desert between Deraat and Amman - and if you do find it you will think it a most improbable place to live at. Living however is quite easy and comfortable here. We are in an old fort with stone roofs and floors, and stone doors of the sort they used in Bashan. It is a bit out of repair, but is improving in that respect every day. I do not know what its postal arrangements are like: at least they begin with about ten days on a camel of mine, and after that the ordinary risks of letters now-a-days. Your chances of getting it are therefore a little thin, it seems to me. I go on writing and writing and it has no effect: every letter I get from you says that you have not heard from me since last time: very disheartening, since writing is always a risk (if our friends get this letter they will pay me a visit) and often difficult. Meanwhile it is restful. I am staying here a few days; resting my camels, and then will have another fling. Last "fling" was two railway engines. One burst into fragments, and the other fell on the first. Quite a successful moment! If you see a note in print saying that "A detachment of the N. army of Sherif Feisul etc." Then that's me... the rest is anonymous. In case my last three letters have fallen through, please tell Arnie that his plan is excellent. I told the people concerned in Cairo, and either Mr. Hogarth or myself can get it arranged quite easily if the time comes. Personally I don't expect it will, but I always was an optimist. I wonder if Gillman could make me another pair of brown shoes? There may be regulations against export, so he should find out first. I do not often wear shoes, but they come in handy sometimes in reserve. I sent you a cheque for £300 some weeks ago, and asked for Janet's address? Did you get them and if not will you let me know?
There, this letter has been 3 days in writing, and I have done all the rest of the work meanwhile.
T. E. Lawrence
| Source: | HL 342-3 |
| Checked: | jw/ |
| Last revised: | 9 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