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Updated June 2012
T. E. Lawrence to K. W. Marshall
13 Birmingham St.
Southampton
4.5.34.
Dear Marshall
It will by now be all over: I hope it was not too rude an experience. As I said, I think you are wise in taking the step: which isn't really, I hope, either a plunge or a responsibility, but just a good arrangement.
Don't be shy about asking me if ever you feel I could be useful. I'm sure that such an event will not be common!
The R.A.F. have kept me wandering about the earth for weeks now: but at last I have regained Southampton Water, where there are five new boats to run in, with 20 hours each.
If they will leave me to that, I shall be pleased for three weeks. Today was noble sunlight, and the boat behaved beautifully.
[name omitted] drew himself slowly and firmly upon me that day: and I have met him once and had a letter: to which I replied. Do not worry: I have seen his like, often. [name omitted] showed his disgust: but [name omitted] isn't really worth it, uncomfortable though his manner makes me. I am sorry, always, for the patently important. It must be terrible to be like that, don't you think?
Cheerio: we are healthy, and can be vulgar, I hope, when we feel inclined.
I've been reading R. Graves' book on Roman history. Hard-hearted and bloody: What a strange road R.G. has travelled. [one line omitted]
T.E.S.
| Source: | DG 801 |
| Checked: | jw/ |
| Last revised: | 17 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