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Updated June 2012
T. E. Lawrence to Lord Lloyd
Mount Batten
13.01.30
Dear G.L.
I thought it over during a bad weekend of gale, in which we nearly swamped ourselves rescuing a derelict: and I have decided against.
Lord Thomson would make great difficulties, but that is not the real reason. Actually it is a weakness of the spirit which I fear. If I went back there, I might be drawn to things again: and it is better that I keep clear.
It is very good of you to ask me, and I would also like to have loved it. Only Arabia and book-writing are two of the things which I must not do, obviously. I hope you go, and like it. Ibn Saud has my respects as a King: [three words omitted]. He will be better - but weaker - now he tries to rule without the Akhwan.
It will be a wonderful trip. Commend me to them both: I.S. and Faisal. They are doing a fine thing, between them.
T.E.S.
| Source: | DG 677-8 |
| Checked: | dn/ |
| Last revised: | 28 October 2008 |
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