Contents lists
Updated June 2012
T. E. Lawrence to his mother
25.iv.31
I cannot say how long we will be here. Till we have run the 1st engine of a new type for 50 hours (31 to date) and then till the 2nd and 3rd of the type are running properly in our own twin-engined boat here. It may be days, or a week. Very bad weather is making it both uncomfortable and difficult.
I brought no bicycle with me, because I should be engaged day and night on this work while here. What with adjustments, running-hours, and reports our day is full from 7a.m. till 10p.m. So I do not want you to come here. Nor can I come to Clouds Hill. We work every day of the week.
When our boat is satisfactory, we take her to Plymouth, and do 50-hours R.A.F. test of her, on service jobs. After that I shall have some leisure. Not till then. Everything is being done at a rush, because eight of these boats are required to be in commission for the Schneider races, and that gives little time to test 3 different engines and decide which is the best.
I am glad you can use Pat a bit. If I get my Odyssey done this year (it is of course held up, now) I shall be able to use him in building my new room.
The estate would not sell the opposite side of the road - but might give me a long lease of it. Knowles' lease runs out in 3 years or so. I want to prevent other bungalows from springing up opposite my patch. It takes the estate months to make up its mind!
N.
| Source: | HL 378-9 |
| Checked: | jw/ |
| Last revised: | 14 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