Arnold Walter Lawrence FBA
A. W. Lawrence inOmnibus (BBC, 1985)
Born	(1900-05-02)2 May 1900 Oxford
Died	31 March 1991(1991-03-31) (aged 90) Devizes, Wiltshire
Known for	Modelling forYouth byKathleen Scott
Spouse	Barbara Inness Thompson ​ ​ (m. 1925; died 1986)​ 1 child
Father	Sir Thomas Chapman, 7th Baronet
Family	T. E. Lawrence (brother)
Academic background
Education	City of Oxford High School for Boys New College, Oxford
Academic work
Institutions	Jesus College, Cambridge University College of the Gold Coast

Arnold Walter LawrenceFBA (2 May 1900 – 31 March 1991) was a British authority on classical sculpture and architecture. He wasLaurence Professor of Classical Archaeology atCambridge University in the 1940s, and in the early 1950s inAccra he founded what later became the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board as well as theNational Museum of Ghana. He was the youngest brother ofT. E. Lawrence ("Lawrence of Arabia"), and acted as hisliterary executor.

Arnold Lawrence was born at 2Polstead Road,Oxford, on 2 May 1900, the youngest of five sons born toThomas Chapman (who became, in 1914, Sir Thomas Chapman, 7thBaronet), anAnglo-Irish landowner fromCounty Westmeath, and Sarah Junner (1861–1959). The couple were unmarried but took the names "Thomas Robert Lawrence" and "Sarah Lawrence". Their second son wasT. E. Lawrence who later found fame as "Lawrence of Arabia". He and Arnold Lawrence were close.^[1]

The Lawrence children were brought up inOxford by their mother who was very religious. But Arnold Lawrence expressed outspoken anti-religious views; he once stated "All religion is vermin".^[2] He attended theCity of Oxford High School for Boys before joiningNew College, Oxford, obtaining a diploma inClassical Archaeology in 1920^[1] and graduating with a third inLiterae Humaniores in 1921.^[3] Classical archaeology was his second choice; the young A. W. Lawrence had wanted to specialise in South-American archaeology, but no British university offered a course.

Arnold Lawrence was a student at theBritish School at Rome in 1921 and then at theBritish School at Athens until 1926.^[3] In 1923, Lawrence worked on the excavation ofUr which was directed byLeonard Woolley, under whom T. E. Lawrence had excavated atCarchemish before theFirst World War.^[4] In 1925 Lawrence married Barbara Inness Thompson (1902–1986),^[1] with whom he had one child, Jane Helen Thera Lawrence (1926–1978).^[3]

Lawrence modelled for the sculptorKathleen Scott in December 1922.^[5] The statue ofYouth was later erected at theScott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge.^[6][2]

After T. E. Lawrence's death in 1935, A. W. Lawrence promoted his older brother's memory, collecting material connected to him, and attempting to correct misrepresentations of his character in the media.^[7] In 1936, A. W. Lawrence gaveClouds Hill to the National Trust; it is now a museum.^[8] T. E.'s enduring fame was a burden for A. W.; from his early twenties until the day he died, many people saw A. W. Lawrence primarily as the brother of someone else.^{[citation needed]}

He wrote widely on the subject of Greek architecture and sculpture as well as on fortifications^[which?] in west Africa.^[9] In 1930 he was elected to the Laurence readership inClassical Archaeology at theUniversity of Cambridge. In 1944 he succeededAlan Wace asLaurence Professor of Classical Archaeology at Cambridge and was elected to aFellowship atJesus College, Cambridge.^[3] In 1951 he obtained a Leverhulme research fellowship for the study of ancient fortifications, a subject inherited from T. E. Lawrence. In 1951 he resigned from his post at Cambridge to become the Professor of Archaeology at theUniversity College of the Gold Coast where he established theNational Museum and was the Secretary and Conservator of the Monuments and Relics Committee. He resigned from these posts in 1957 after Ghana became independent and soon after settled atPateley Bridge in Yorkshire, later moving toBouthwaite.^[3]

In the summer of 1985 Lawrence was interviewed by Julia Cave for aBBCOmnibus programme about T. E. Lawrence.^[1]

In September 1985, when he and his wife could no longer drive, they moved toLangford, nearBiggleswade, close to where their two grandchildren were living. Following his wife's death in November 1986, Lawrence moved to the house of a friend and fellow archaeologist,Peggy Guido (1912–1994) inDevizes, Wiltshire. There he worked on preparing a new edition of his 1935AnnotatedHerodotus which was never completed. He died at 44 Long Street,Devizes, on 31 March 1991 aged 90.^[3] The unfinished Herodotus material was handed over to theBodleian Library, along with the rest of the Lawrence papers.^[7]

Lawrence was aFellow of theBritish Academy.

• Lawrence, A. W.Later Greek Sculpture and its Influence. London: Jonathan Cape; New York: Harcourt Brace, 1927.
• Lawrence, A. W.Classical Sculpture – Its History from the Earliest Times to the Death of Constantine. London: Jonathan Cape, 1929.
• Lawrence, A. W., ed.Captives of Tipu: Survivors' Narratives London: Jonathan Cape, 1929.
• Lawrence, A. W., ed.Narratives of the Discovery of America. London: Jonathan Cape, 1931.
• Lawrence, A. W.Herodotus, Rawlinson's Translation Revised and Annotated. London: Nonesuch Press, 1935.
• Lawrence, A. W., ed.T.E. Lawrence by His Friends. London: Jonathan Cape; Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1937.
• Lawrence, A. W., ed.Oriental Assembly by T.E. Lawrence. London: Williams & Norgate, 1939.
• Lawrence, A. W.Greek Architecture. London: Penguin; New Haven: Yale University Press, 1957; 2nd ed, 1967 (later editions revised by others).
• Lawrence, A. W., ed.Letters to T.E. Lawrence. London: Jonathan Cape, 1962.
• Lawrence, A. W.Trade Castles and Forts of West Africa. London: Jonathan Cape; Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, 1963.
• Lawrence, A. W.Greek and Roman Sculpture. London: Jonathan Cape, 1972.
• Lawrence, A. W.Greek Aims in Fortification. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1979.

• English translation of an article about A. W. Lawrence in the Dutch daily NRC Handelsblad, 15 August 1992

• 1900 births
• 1991 deaths
• 20th-century Anglo-Irish people
• 20th-century English historians
• 20th-century British archaeologists
• People from Oxford
• English archaeologists
• Alumni of New College, Oxford
• Fellows of Jesus College, Cambridge
• People educated at the City of Oxford High School for Boys
• T. E. Lawrence
• Laurence Professors of Classical Archaeology
• English male non-fiction writers
• Honorary Fellows of the British Academy

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