T. E. Lawrence

Contents lists

1888-1910

1911

1912

1913

1914

1915-16

1917-18

1919-20

1921

1922

1923

1924

1925

1926

1927

1928

1929

1930

1931

1932

1933

1934

1935

Updated June 2012

T. E. Lawrence to R. G. Goslett

---

3 Birmingham St.,
Southampton

31.VIII.33

Dear R.G.

You are an angel. The bath came, beautifully packed, with all its loose parts in another box. It sits in my garage - or garden shed - awaiting the arrival of its boiler-and-burner-and-tank. The erection of the whole unit is to be signalised by an open-to-all bathing festival, lasting one hour. All Clouds Hill will attend, stark naked.

Meanwhile we progress. My ram was publicly opened yesterday by the oldest (and only) inhabitant of Clouds Hill, with picturesque ceremony. It is the smallest ram in the world. Less than three hours after the opening ceremony the pipe (100 yards long) had filled and water began to flow into the cottage cistern. A pint came through in just four minutes. The oldest (and only) inhabitant took off his R.A.F. cap and drank the pint. It tasted of galvanised iron and red lead.

In case a pint in four minutes seems to you little for a bath, let me remind you that the ram works all the twenty four hours. I am planning a swimming pool and fountain in the lawn-to-be. The swimmer in the pool will be a gold-fish, chosen for his beauty and contentment with a solitary life. The fountains will be fountain-pen-fillers, concreted in the margin of the fish-swimming-pool.

Here is a cheque upon my overdraft, and I am deeply grateful to you for getting me so good a bath so cheaply. If ever you get near Dorsetshire, do call and turn on its stainless taps!

Clouds Hill, Moreton, Dorset.

That is it. The real centre of my world.

Yours

T.E.S

 

Cheque to you, as the bill is: if wrong please lodge a complaint and another will be sent! No receipt necessary. I lose them, only.

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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