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 Edward Marsh

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Clouds Hill
Moreton Dorset

12. IV. 25

I waited till I'd seen old T. H. again (yesterday): to revive my memories of what he said. The old man never gives judgements upon live writers: so don't quote it. He would not talk to me if he thought I made notes.

Unfortunately a Mrs. [name omitted] butted in and spoiled my preparation. His memory for recent events is getting patchy: and it is no good springing a question upon him.

He said 'The Fables... oh yes... I thought they were excellent reading. Good.' Then he went on to talk of the rat which found oysters upon the sea-shore, and thought they were ships... and the quote from Rabelais. It was going to be quite worth reporting... and then this old hen butted in: and when she had stopped, and I asked again, he had forgotten that he had read the fables. The truth is that a film seems to slip over his mind at times now: and the present is then obscured by events of his childhood. He talked next of seeing Scots Greys in a public house in Dorchester drinking strong ale, whose fumes made him (aet. 6) drunken.

I'll try again in a fortnight or so. I generally see him every other Sunday

Many thanks for seeing Winston for me. If he moves upon S. Hoare, S. Hoare will run obediently: it is only his propriety which hates seeing me in the ranks. Pity it is Winston's Budget Season. I've been unlucky for two years now.

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