Edwin Aquino

Period 1: World History

May 25, 2017

Lawrence of Arabia

Thomas Edward Lawrence was born on August 16, 1888, in Tremadog, Carnarvonshire. He
died in May 19, 1935 (aged 46), in Bovington Camp, Dorset, England. He was a British
archaeologist , military officer, diplomat, and writer. He is known for his involvement for the Sinai
and Palestine Campaign and Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire during the First World
War. These activities and associations and the ability to describe it vividly in his writing earned
him fame as Lawrence Of Arabia-a title used for the 1962 film based on the events he
encountered during the time of the war.

His father Thomas Chapman left his wife Edith after he fell in love and had a son with Sarah
Junner. Sarah was the daughter of Elizabeth Junner and John Lawrence, who worked as a
ship’s carpenter and was a son of the household were Elizabeth was a servant. Four months
before she was dismissed and Sarah was born. Elizabeth identified John Junner as Sarah’s
father. Sarah and Thomas lived together under the name Lawrence but were not married. They
had five sons, Thomas Edward being the second eldest son.

At the age of 15, Thomas Edward cycled around Berkshire, Oxfordshire, and Buckinghamshire
with his friend Cyril Beeson. They both visited almost every village’s parish church, they studied
the monuments and antiquities and made rubbings of the monumental brasses. The two
monitored building sites in Oxford and showed its findings to The Ashmolean Museum.
Lawrence then studied history at Jesus College,Oxford. He was then offered an opportunity to
become a practising archaeologist in the Middle East.

On January 1914, Lawrence was co-opted by the British Army. On the outbreak in August 1914,
he was not immediately enlisted, he held back until October. He was then commissioned on the
General List and posted to the Intelligence Staff in Cairo before the end of the year. Since
Lawrence traveled a lot in the Middle East and knowledge of Arabic made him an obvious
choice to be stationed there. He arrived in Cairo on the 15th of December 1914.

In the Arab speaking Ottoman territories, there was an Arab-nationalist movement growing,
including Arabs serving in the Ottoman armed forces. An uprising like this would have helped
Britain a lot in its war against The Ottoman Empire, greatly lessening the threat in the Suez
Canal. During this time Lawrence’s task was to interview the prisoners they have captured,
supervised the preparation of maps, and he produced a daily bulletin for the British Generals
operating in the theatre. The situation came to a crisis in October 1915 when Sharif Hussein
demanded a commitment from Britain, with a threat that if it were denied, Sharif would throw his
weight behind the Ottomans.
The Arab Revolt began in June 1916, with a risk that the Ottomans would advance along the
coast of the Red Sea and recapture Mecca. Lawrence was sent to an intelligence mission to
gather information led by Ronald Storrs in October 16, 1916. He interviewed three of Sharif
Hussein’s sons, Abdullah, Ali, and Faisal. In conclusion to this interview, they chose Faisal to
lead the Arab Revolt. They then decided to assign S. F . Newcombe to lead a permanent British
liaison to Faisal’s staff in November. Since Newcombe didn’t arrive in the area and the situation
was urgent, Lawrence was sent in his place.

Lawrence and Faisal worked out a plan for repositioning the Arab forces in a way that countered
the Ottoman forces around Medina from threatening Arab positions and put the railway from
Syria under threat. Once Newcombe came, Lawrence was preparing to leave Arabia, Faisal
stopped Lawrence from leaving by asking that his assignment would become permanent.
Lawrence stook with Faisal’s forces until the fall of Damascus in 1918. The most important
contributions to the revolt were in the area of strategy and liaison with the British forces,
Lawrence also participated in several military engagements.The Turks in the summer of 1918
were offering a huge reward for the capture of Lawrence, first the reward was £5,000 and then
eventually £20,000.

An officer in his notes wrote “Though a price of £15,000 has been put on his head by the Turks,
no Arab has, as yet, attempted to betray him”. The Sharif of Mecca gave Lawrence the status of
one of his on sons, he supports the structure of the influence of Arabia. He is a very inspiring
gentleman adventurer. Lawrence was involved in the capture of Damascus in the final weeks of
the war, although he wasn’t present at the city’s surrender. A disappointment and contrary to
instructions which he had issued, he arrived several hours after the city has fallen.

Lawrence helped established a provisional Arab government under Faisal in the new liberated
Damascus, which Lawrence imagined as the capital as the Arab state. Faisal reign ended in
1920 after the battle of Maysaloun when the French forces of General Gouraud under the
command of General Mariano Goybet entered Damascus destroying Lawrence’s dream of an
independent Arabia. In the closing years of the wars, Lawrence attempted to convince his
superiors in the British government that the Arabs interest was in independence. France and
Britain denied the promises of independence that they made to the Arabs. This bothered the
work of the British and French.

After the war Lawrence immediately returned to the United Kingdom. He worked for the Foreign
Office. He attends the Paris Peace conference from January to May as a member of Faisal
delegation. On May 17, 1919, Lawrence on a flight to Egypt, the plane he was on crashed at the
airport of Roma-Centocelle. The pilot and the co pilot were both killed but Lawrence luckily
survived with broken ribs and a broken shoulder blade.

While hospitalized he was visited by the King from Italy “Victor Emanuel III”. Lawrence enlisted
in the Royal Air Force as an aircraftman, in 1922 under the name John Hume Ross. He was
rejected since the recruiting officer was suspicious that Ross was a false name. Lawrence
admitted that he used false documents. Lawrence returned some time later with an RAF
messenger, the messenger carried a written order that the Officer must accept Lawrence into
the Royal Air Force.

In February of 1923, Lawrence was forced out of the Royal Air Force after his true identity was
exposed. Lawrence changed his name to T. E . Shaw and joined the Royal Tank Corps. He was
unhappy with this decision so repeatedly tried to join the RAF again, which they finally
readmitted him again in August 1925. After the Revolt in the Desert it resulted him an
assignment to a remote base in British India in late 1926 where he remained until the end of
1928. Lawrence was forced back to Britain after rumours were spread that he was in involved in
espionage activities.

Lawrence continued to serve the the RAF until he left the service at the of the enlistment in
March 1935. Lawrence then owned eight Brough Superior motorcycles at different times. His
last owned motorcycle the SS100 is privately owned but it is on loan to the National Motor
Museum, Beaulieu, and The Imperial War Museum in London. Two months after leaving the
military service, Lawrence tragically crashed while riding his motorcycle (model Brough
Superior SS100) near his cottage near Wareham. His view was blocked by a dip in the road, he
swerved to avoid hitting two boys on their bikes, lost control , and was thrown over the
handlebars.

Thomas Edward Lawrence tragically died six days later in the hospital on May 19, 1935. His
death was unexpected. There is still a lot unknown about him, but his legend endures.