Contents lists
Updated June 2012
T. E. Lawrence to Edward Marsh
Clouds Hill
Moreton Dorset
12. IV. 25
I waited till I'd seen old T. H. again (yesterday): to revive my memories of what he said. The old man never gives judgements upon live writers: so don't quote it. He would not talk to me if he thought I made notes.
Unfortunately a Mrs. [name omitted] butted in and spoiled my preparation. His memory for recent events is getting patchy: and it is no good springing a question upon him.
He said 'The Fables... oh yes... I thought they were excellent reading. Good.' Then he went on to talk of the rat which found oysters upon the sea-shore, and thought they were ships... and the quote from Rabelais. It was going to be quite worth reporting... and then this old hen butted in: and when she had stopped, and I asked again, he had forgotten that he had read the fables. The truth is that a film seems to slip over his mind at times now: and the present is then obscured by events of his childhood. He talked next of seeing Scots Greys in a public house in Dorchester drinking strong ale, whose fumes made him (aet. 6) drunken.
I'll try again in a fortnight or so. I generally see him every other Sunday
Many thanks for seeing Winston for me. If he moves upon S. Hoare, S. Hoare will run obediently: it is only his propriety which hates seeing me in the ranks. Pity it is Winston's Budget Season. I've been unlucky for two years now.
T.E.S.
| Source: | DG 473-4 |
| Checked: | mv/ |
| 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