Contents lists
Updated June 2012
T. E. Lawrence to his mother
[Bovington]
9.V.24
There, I've gone out tonight and bought six penny stamps, and stuck one on each of six envelopes. So that in future it will not be so frightfully difficult to write to you. Your papers are ordered, and I hope being sent to you, now. I'll go over to Dorchester tomorrow and make sure.
W.H. Smith & Son, East St. Dorchester Dorset, in case you wish to make any alteration or difference in them. Sorry your boxes got so hurt by water. I hope you haven't lost anything irreplaceable. Were the books good ones? I can send you more, as you require them. Little news here. Trenchard sent for me, the other day. I went up, hoping to hear something about my getting back to the R.A.F. but all that he wanted me for was to offer me the writing of the R.A.F. history of the war... the thing of which Raleigh did one volume, and whose continuation Mr. Hogarth lately laid down, after a year spent in working at it. Of course it's a very difficult thing to do, and D.G H. has been a sick man lately. The diabetes opened the way to all sorts of minor ailments, so that he is now feeling fully his age: indeed I suspect that he will never be quite right again: and in the circumstances he was wise to give up so exacting a job. Of course it is out of the question that I should take it over. I heard the other day from Arnie, who is still in New York, but may come to England next month. He thinks afterwards of going on to Germany and Greece: but if he stays in this country any length of time will try and make time to visit me here. I've just put a bed in one room of my cottage at Clouds Hill, so that he can camp out there if he wishes to be quiet. There are books in the place, and nothing to do. No news at all. A Labour Government is like any other: and this isn't a Government. It's a conspiracy on the part of Liberals and Conservatives to dodge the responsibility of office! No act can be made without the consent of all three parties!
N.
| Source: | HL 357 |
| Checked: | jw/ |
| Last revised: | 12 February 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