Contents lists
Updated June 2012
T. E. Lawrence to Corporal W. Bradbury
Brid.
13.2.35.
Excellent! If you can come up the 19th, I'll be out of this place about the 23rd. Air Ministry warns me that the Press are getting curious about my movements again. Damn the Press!
My book isn't a bit like yours: no spare parts, no part numbers, and no prices! Only a summary of the work done on boats. I haven't done all Mr. James' work for him! But it is accurate enough to show a skilled man what has happened. By all means bring yours up: and the Logs.
We launched the Dinghy: the quietest and sweetest tick-over of any Dinghy yet! It kicked back, when cold. So we put the ignition back a trifle. Then the front rocker ran dry, and there was no oil flowing down the front lead from head to camshaft front bearing. So we pulled down the rocker assembly, and found more bits of Harry M's. string in the rocker-fulcrum pipe! Took 'em out, and all's perfect.
Send the last engine of 217 when you can. We aim to get the Garage empty by February 27, and haven't too much time. Recasting the controls of 190 and 191 will be a slow job.
Felixstowe are pleased with 159 - but they ran down her battery, starting up! They'll learn, like we did.
Interesting about the Lion. More trouble coming, I think.
I'm sorry about your kid. Twelve teeth out isn't good fun for so small a creature. I hope it doesn't do him any harm.
If we launch the last boat on Feb. 27, as I hope, you should have tested it by March 2 or 3 - and then be free for Hythe again. Don't forget you ought to go to Meadows for a visit soon. They are an interesting firm; not many flies on them.
B.G. has applied for you, permanently! It's bound to come through, I think, and soon. Excellent! I'm as pleased as you, for it has all been done by his own suggestion. I've not had to hint a thing. That is the perfection of method! Don't say so, though!
Fetch Stan or somebody up with you: then he and you can test, while Boyle finishes in the Garage.
Yours,
T.E.S.
| Source: | DG 855 |
| Checked: | jw/ |
| Last revised: | 15 January 2005 |
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