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T. E. Lawrence to Sir Philip Sassoon
Mount Batten
Plymouth
30.iii.33.
Dear Sir Philip
Your letters are so kind that I wish I could have seen you and explained myself properly. It does not feel proper to expose a lot of problems on paper to a busy man.
Ellington was it? (an Air Marshal, in 'P') sent a letter this week to the C.O. here, asking him to see me and find out if I had a grievance, as the S. of S. was concerned to know why I wished to leave the R.A.F. I expect the S. of S. was yourself?
I replied that I had no grievance, and was only too sorry to be leaving - but that I could no longer be content to do station duty at Mount Batten. My present job is looking after the boats and their engines here, and that is purely routine and not a day's work, even for my hands. I am a reasonably-skilled mechanic, after all these years, but without ambitions to excel in it.
My feeling was that I should do something more, if I was to justify my staying on in the R.A.F. At Karachi, for instance, they let me revise the procedure of engine-overhaul in the Depot. At Batten Sydney Smith gave me the Schneider Cup ground-organisation. Then the D. of E. gave me the R.A.F. fleet to put on new lines, and I did eighteen months on that and got half-way in it.
So I told the C.O., for Ellington, that if there was any special job in which the C.A.S. thought I could be particularly useful, then I was at his service: but if not I would prefer my discharge. That meant, I am sure, that they would discharge me: many people would be glad to see me go, and I am not fond of pushing in where I am not wanted. The only thing that troubles me is that there is much I could yet do. In these eleven years I have learned every square inch of the R.A.F. and it seems a pity to leave so much knowledge unused.
However please understand that I look back upon these eleven years with delight. I have been most happy, and owe the R.A.F. a great debt which will always make me its advocate and silent supporter. I will not write about it.
I saw Geoffrey Salmond lately, and told him almost what I have said above. 'I will not go on at Batten, doing routine work. I would like to do more boats', or to see the auxiliary airmen (the R.A.F. of the future, I think!) or, best of all, to do a long flying-boat voyage and write a log of it. I have the ambition to compete with you, there. We should have a collection like Hakluyt, for the air - however all these things are unimportant.
When I am free I shall make a pilgrimage to your neighbourhood and hope to find you at leisure for talking. It will feel queer to own all my time! April 6 is my last day.
Yours sincerely,
T. E. Shaw
| Source: | DG 764-5 |
| Checked: | jw/ |
| Last revised: | 18 January 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