Contents lists
Updated June 2012
T. E. Lawrence to Clare Sydney Smith
I. of W.
16.VI.33.
Yes, you will miss the poor beasts, and they will miss you. That includes Squeak, if you leave her behind. Poor Leo will miss the R.A.F., too. Civil life is not all it is made out to be.
Tell me, when do you really expect to take wing? Do you go by trooper? God forbid, but I suppose you must, and it will not be the experience I had. I do not think I can ever quite forgive the Government its troop-ships.
Talking of ships, the Varis, Colin Cooper aboard, came here yesterday. So beautifully appointed a little yacht, with quite astonishing cabins and saloons, and a really good engine room. Capt. Chamberlain aboard, as Skipper, too.
We talked of the Biscuit, and he suggested that the yacht could fetch her up from Batten to Scott Paine's yard at Hythe. I jumped at the idea, for Batten are making difficulties about storing her, and at Hythe I could work on her, and make her all new again. It cannot be for just a while, as the yacht goes back to Thornycroft for finishing - but in the summer. That is very good. Perhaps there will be a Biscuit when you return and S.S. is C.S.O. at Coastal Area.
Does it not sadden you to think that Singapore is his last station? Thereafter he will be too great for one place to hold.
Coming to Manston - as soon as I finish here and move to England: and on Monday the first of these pinnaces should launch. Patience. It nears....
T.E.S.
Tell P. Balfour that while the R.A.F. want me, I am happy.
Notes
S.S. - Sydney Smith
C.S.O. - Chief Staff Officer
| Source: | GR 214-5 |
| Checked: | jw/ |
| Last revised: | 4 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