Contents lists
Updated June 2012
T. E. Lawrence to Clare Sydney Smith
Mount Batten
3.IV.33.
Here is Monday come, and my discharge due on Thursday, and not an indication from Air Ministry if I am to or not.
Extraordinary people.
I am carrying on as if to do, and have got rid of all my kit, except what I stand in. This last Saturday I ran a car-load of books, records, clothes and tools to my cottage, which is still in the throes of the builders, but looking peaceful despite it. I think it will do, as a harbour.
Gramophone already there, and the acoustics of the room wonderful. Strings are really 'woody' and ripe, in the cottage. All my records are there assembled, yards of them. But only a few books, as yet. The rest in London await the shelving's completion.
If my discharge comes I move to the cottage on Thursday, and to London on Friday. To Nottingham, Saturday and Sunday. So no Salcombe for me, I'm afraid.
If the discharge does not come through I will send five telegrams of cancellation and remain at Batten, very happy to see you and help you to biscuit!
To-night I am for London, to see Philip Sassoon by his arrangement. Return to-morrow night. How we gad about! Saw Lady Astor last night. She was asking after you. Ah, dear, I shall be glad when I know what is to be
Yours,
T.E.S.
Should I not be at Batten when you come, F/sqd. Sommers is your best help. I will give him word about petrol, oil, and crane - The G/C can tell W/C Andrews that it's all regular! The Biscuit is going beautifully.
| Source: | GR 207-8 |
| Checked: | jw/ |
| Last revised: | 3 July 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