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Updated June 2012
T. E. Lawrence to Corporal W. Bradbury
Ozone Hotel,
Bridlington.
15.2.35.
Good: I'm glad you can get up so soon as the 19th. That eases my situation. I find these last days rather wearing, and will be glad to end them suddenly.
About lodgings. There are thousands of empty rooms at Bridlington; but the Ozone is R.A.F. quarters. My chit only allows me to claim cash where no official accommodation is available. I don't know what your chit allows you, but better make sure before you claim. You could ring up the Accountant Officer at Calshot or Gosport and ask in case of doubt. The Ozone is all right, but of course you'd be more comfortable outside at 30/- a week, if you are allowed it. I'm off allowance now, and in billets with the rest of the airmen; twelve of us now, and 30 more due on the 20th. All to the Ozone, except those married and living out.
Spare parts: will you try and get some terminals, about 30, to fit the latest Champion sparking plugs? In fitting the suppressors, some have been lost already, and there will be more of them lost as time goes on. The terminals that went down on the R.13's., with the engines, might do. I'm not sure about the threads.
Also if possible a new or part-worn Power adjustable spanner, as asked for by Sergt. Cambden; also a set of Power feeler gauges, as supplied in tool kits. Also new or part-worn as available. I think that is all, unless you see some of those lovely worm-driven water hose clips lying about. They beat [name omitted] clips to a frazzle.
I'll meet you at 6. 15 p.m. at Brid. Station on Tuesday. You'll wear civics, I expect, and carry blue working kit. The section can lend you overalls and oilskins, probably.
Yours,
T.E.S.
P.S. Boyle has some wants. He has asked for them but not yet received.
About 5 propellers 14 x 13. Three water pump top elbows, for Armoured Boats, the type that look aft.
Two rev. counters - instruments only.
If you can get these from Read or Mr. Munro, do!
Don't try and carry the propellers yourself.
| Source: | DG 856 |
| 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