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 J.G. Wilson

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Bridlington
20.11.34.

Dear Wilson

I'm glad you are taking the plunge; and glad it's you and not me, for there'll be a lot of work entailed. The moving of that enormous stock, its re-valuation.....heavens! If I were wealthy, I would run an account; but alas, after March I come down to 26/- a week. This R.A.F. has been not merely a joy but a living, to me.

Is the new to be Bumpus? And where will it be? And when? Send me a 6 lined letter of news, as soon as you decide to let people know. I expect you will be printing a notice, for all your victims to learn where the new altar stands.

I laughed when I read your very proper sentence about our dear Queen. Clearly it is time the Chaucer relapsed into obscurity again - otherwise it will grow too big for my cottage. It's a wretched book, as Morris built it: too heavy to go by post! So will you please send it to Sir Herbert Baker, at No.2 Smith Square, Westminster - by one of your delivery people, if you use such aids to distribution? I have some stuff to collect and take away by rail from Baker's house, there, and shall bear off the Chaucer amongst it.

I agree with you. It's a marvellous possession, and very good to read. I haven't ever finished it, so it will solace my empty hours at Clouds Hill, Moreton, Dorset, which is the address, I hope, of my old age. A very fit address for an ex-airman, too. [8 lines omitted]

Hoping to see you one bright day.

Yours

T.E.S.

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