T. E. Lawrence

Contents lists

1888-1910

1911

1912

1913

1914

1915-16

1917-18

1919-20

1921

1922

1923

1924

1925

1926

1927

1928

1929

1930

1931

1932

1933

1934

1935

Updated June 2012

T. E. Lawrence to his family

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[Guweira]

Feb. 6, 1918

Excuse a scrawl: this is only to say that I am here and quite fit: in Guweira, a place 35 miles NE of Akaba. I have come down for a night to see Feisul, from Tafileh, where I have been for the last few days. No news from you for a long time, and no opportunity, I expect, of hearing from you for some time yet. General Clayton has, I believe, wired for Arnie - but I do not know in what terms, why, or what the answer has been. If I hear of him in Cairo, I'll try to cut across for a day or two and fix things up with him. He must spend at least some months there. We had a fight north of Tafileh the other day - the Turks attacked us and we annihilated them. Took 23 machine guns and two guns, all in working order. Our loss 20 killed, theirs about 400. I am now off again, buying camels in the Eastern desert, round Wadi Sirhan and Jauf. Weather bitterly cold, with persistent snow and rain, but not likely to endure much longer. The coast and Dead Sea are warm, but our work lies on the plateau, 4,000 or 5,000 feet up.

N.

Stamps enclosed are part of Tafileh post office, all surcharged Peninsula of Sinai!

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