Thomas Edward LawrenceCBDSO (16 August 1888 – 19 May 1935) was aBritish Army officer, archaeologist, diplomat and writer known for his role during theArab Revolt andSinai and Palestine campaign against theOttoman Empire in theFirst World War. The breadth and variety of his activities and associations, and Lawrence's ability to describe them vividly in writing, earned him international fame asLawrence of Arabia, a title used forthe 1962 film based on his wartime activities.

T. E. Lawrence CBDSO
Lawrence in 1918
Birth name	Thomas Edward Lawrence
Other name(s)	T. E. Shaw, John Hume Ross
Nickname(s)	Lawrence of Arabia
Born	(1888-08-16)16 August 1888 Tremadog,Carnarvonshire, Wales
Died	19 May 1935(1935-05-19) (aged 46) Bovington Camp,Dorset, England
Buried	St Nicholas' Church, Moreton, Dorset
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/ branch	British Army Royal Air Force
Years of service	1914–1918 1923–1935
Rank	Colonel (British Army) Aircraftman (RAF)
Battles / wars	First World War Arab Revolt Siege of Medina Battle of Aqaba Capture of Damascus Battle of Megiddo
Awards	Companion of the Order of the Bath[1] Distinguished Service Order[2] Knight of the Legion of Honour (France)[3] Croix de guerre (France)[4]
Alma mater	Jesus College, Oxford

Lawrence was born inTremadog,Carnarvonshire, Wales, theillegitimate son ofSir Thomas Chapman, anAnglo-Irish landowner, and Sarah Junner, a governess in Chapman's employ. In 1896, Lawrence moved toOxford, attending theCity of Oxford High School for Boys and read history atJesus College, Oxford from 1907 to 1910. Between 1910 and 1914, he worked as an archaeologist for theBritish Museum, chiefly atCarchemish inOttoman Syria.

After the outbreak of war in 1914, Lawrence joined theBritish Army and was stationed at theArab Bureau, amilitary intelligence unit inEgypt. In 1916, he travelled toMesopotamia andArabia on intelligence missions and became involved with the Arab revolt against Ottoman rule. Lawrence was ultimately assigned to the British Military Mission in theHejaz as a liaison toEmir Faisal, a leader of the revolt. He participated in engagements with theOttoman military culminating in thecapture of Damascus in October 1918.

After the war's end, he joined theForeign Office, working with Faisal. In 1922, Lawrence retreated from public life and served as an enlisted man in the Army andRoyal Air Force (RAF) until 1935. He published theSeven Pillars of Wisdom in 1926, an autobiographical account of his participation in the Arab Revolt. Lawrence also translated books into English and wroteThe Mint, which detailed his service in the RAF. He corresponded extensively with prominent artists, writers and politicians, and also participated in the development of rescue motorboats for the RAF. Lawrence's public image resulted in part from the sensationalised reporting of the Arab Revolt by American journalistLowell Thomas, as well as fromSeven Pillars of Wisdom. In 1935, Lawrence died at the age of 46 after being injured in a motorcycle accident inDorset.

Thomas Edward Lawrence was born on 16 August 1888 inTremadog,Carnarvonshire,^[5] in a house named Gorphwysfa, now known as Snowdon Lodge.^[6][7] His Anglo-Irish fatherThomas Chapman had left his wife Edith, after he had a first son with Sarah Junner, who had been governess to his daughters.^[8] Sarah was herself an illegitimate child, born inSunderland to Elizabeth Junner, a servant employed by a family named Lawrence. She was dismissed four months before Sarah was born, and identified Sarah's father as "John Junner, Shipwright journeyman".^[9][10]

Lawrence's parents did not marry, but lived together under thepseudonym Lawrence.^[11] In 1914, his father inherited theChapman baronetcy based atKillua Castle, the ancestral family home inCounty Westmeath, Ireland.^[11][12] The couple had five sons, Thomas, called "Ned" by his immediate family, being the second eldest. In 1889, the family moved from Wales toKirkcudbright,Galloway, in southwestern Scotland, then to theIsle of Wight, then to theNew Forest, then toDinard in Brittany, and then toJersey.^[13]

The family lived at Langley Lodge, now demolished, from 1894 to 1896, set in private woods between the eastern borders of theNew Forest andSouthampton Water inHampshire.^[14] The residence was isolated, and young Lawrence had many opportunities for outdoor activities and waterfront visits.^[15]

In the summer of 1896, the family moved to 2Polstead Road inOxford, where they lived until 1921.^[11] The wooden shed built in the garden for Lawrence to study when a schoolboy is still standing.^[16] From 1896 until 1907, Lawrence attended theCity of Oxford High School for Boys,^[14] where one of the fourhouses was later named "Lawrence" in his honour. The school closed in 1966.^[17] Lawrence and one of his brothers became commissioned officers in theChurch Lads' Brigade atSt Aldate's Church.^[18]

Lawrence claimed that he ran away from home around 1905, and served for a few weeks as a boy soldier with theRoyal Garrison Artillery atSt Mawes Castle in Cornwall, from which he was bought out.^[19] However, no evidence of this appears in army records.^[20][21]

At the age of 15, Lawrence cycled with his schoolfriendCyril Beeson aroundBerkshire,Buckinghamshire, andOxfordshire, visiting almost every village's parish church, studying their monuments and antiquities, and makingrubbings of theirmonumental brasses.^[22] Lawrence and Beeson monitored building sites in Oxford and presented theAshmolean Museum with anything that they found.^[22] The Ashmolean'sAnnual Report for 1906 said that the two teenage boys "by incessant watchfulness secured everything of antiquarian value which has been found."^[22] In the summers of 1906 and 1907, Lawrence toured France by bicycle, sometimes with Beeson, collecting photographs, drawings, and measurements of medieval castles.^[22] In August 1907, Lawrence wrote home: "The Chaignons & theLamballe people complimented me on my wonderful French: I have been asked twice since I arrived what part of France I came from".^[23]

From 1907 to 1910, Lawrence read history atJesus College, Oxford.^[24] In July and August 1908, he cycled 2,200 miles (3,500 km) solo through France to the Mediterranean and back, researching French castles.^[25][26] In the summer of 1909, he set out alone on a three-month walking tour ofcrusader castles inOttoman Syria, during which he travelled 1,000 miles (1,600 km) on foot.^[27] While at Jesus he was a keen member of theUniversity Officers' Training Corps (OTC).^[28] He graduated with First Class Honours after submitting a thesis titledThe Influence of the Crusades on European Military Architecture—to the End of the 12th Century,^[29] partly based on his field research with Beeson in France,^[22] and his solo research in France and the Middle East.^[30] Lawrence was fascinated by the Middle Ages. His brotherArnold wrote in 1937 that "medieval researches" were a "dream way of escape from bourgeois England".^[31]

In 1910, Lawrence was offered the opportunity to become a practising archaeologist atCarchemish, in the expedition thatD. G. Hogarth was setting up on behalf of theBritish Museum.^[32] Hogarth arranged a "SeniorDemyship", a form of scholarship, for Lawrence atMagdalen College, Oxford, to fund his work at £100 a year.^[33] In December 1910, he sailed forBeirut, and went toByblos in Lebanon, where he studied Arabic.^[34] He then went to work on the excavations at Carchemish, nearJerablus in northern Syria, where he worked under Hogarth,R. Campbell Thompson of the British Museum, andLeonard Woolley until 1914.^[35] He later stated that everything that he had accomplished, he owed to Hogarth.^[36] Lawrence metGertrude Bell while excavating at Carchemish.^[37] In 1912, he worked briefly withFlinders Petrie atKafr Ammar in Egypt.^[38]

At Carchemish, Lawrence was involved in a high-tension relationship with a German-led team working nearby on theBaghdad Railway at Jerablus. While there was never open combat, there was regular conflict over access to land and treatment of the local workforce. Lawrence gained experience in Middle Eastern leadership practices and conflict resolution.^[39]

In January 1914, Woolley and Lawrence were co-opted by the British military as an archaeological smokescreen for a British military survey of theNegev desert.^[40] They were funded by thePalestine Exploration Fund to search for an area referred to in the Bible as theWilderness of Zin,^[41] and they made an archaeological survey of the Negev desert along the way. The Negev was strategically important because anOttoman army attacking Egypt would have to cross it. Woolley and Lawrence published a report of the expedition's archaeological findings,^[42] but a more important result was their updated mapping of the area, with special attention to features of military relevance such as water sources. Lawrence also visitedAqaba and Shobek, not far fromPetra.^[43]

Following the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914, Lawrence did not immediately enlist in the British Army. He held back until October on the advice ofS. F. Newcombe, when he was commissioned on theGeneral List as temporary second lieutenant-interpreter.^[44] Before the end of the year, he was summoned by renowned archaeologist and historianLieutenant Commander David Hogarth, his mentor at Carchemish, to the newArab Bureau intelligence unit in Cairo, and he arrived in Cairo on 15 December 1914.^[45] The Bureau's chief wasBrigadier-GeneralGilbert Clayton who reported toEgyptian High CommissionerHenry McMahon.^[46]

The situation was complex during 1915. There was a growing Arab nationalist movement within the Arabic-speaking Ottoman territories, including many Arabs serving in the Ottoman armed forces.^[47] They were in contact withSharif Hussein,Emir of Mecca,^[48] who was negotiating with the British and offering to lead an Arab uprising against the Ottomans. In exchange, he wanted a British guarantee of an independent Arab state including theHejaz, Syria, andMesopotamia.^[49] Such an uprising would have been helpful to Britain in its war against the Ottomans, lessening the threat against theSuez Canal.^[50] However, there was resistance from French diplomats who insisted that Syria's future was as a French colony, not an independent Arab state.^[51] There were also strong objections from theGovernment of India, which was nominally part of the British government but acted independently.^[52] Its vision was of Mesopotamia under British control serving as a granary for India; furthermore, it wanted to hold on to its Arabian outpost inAden.^[53]

At the Arab Bureau, Lawrence supervised the preparation of maps,^[54] produced a daily bulletin for the British generals operating in the theatre,^[55] and interviewed prisoners.^[54] He was an advocate of a British landing atAlexandretta (nowİskenderun in Turkey) that never came to pass.^[56] He was also a consistent advocate of an independent Arab Syria.^[57]

The situation came to a crisis in October 1915, as Sharif Hussein demanded an immediate commitment from Britain, with the threat that he would otherwise throw his weight behind the Ottomans.^[58] This would create a crediblePan-Islamic message that could have been dangerous for Britain, which was in severe difficulties in theGallipoli Campaign.^[59] The British replied with aletter from High Commissioner McMahon that was generally agreeable while reserving commitments concerning the Mediterranean coastline andHoly Land.^[60]

In the spring of 1916, Lawrence was dispatched to Mesopotamia to assist in relieving theSiege of Kut by some combination of starting an Arab uprising and bribing Ottoman officials. This mission produced no useful result.^[61] Meanwhile, theSykes–Picot Agreement was being negotiated in London, without the knowledge of British officials in Cairo, which awarded a large proportion of Syria to France. Further, it implied that the Arabs would have to conquer Syria's four great cities if they were to have any sort of state there: Damascus,Homs,Hama, andAleppo.^[62] It is unclear at what point Lawrence became aware of the treaty's contents.^[63]

The Arab Revolt began in June 1916, but it bogged down after a few successes, with a real risk that the Ottoman forces would advance along the coast of the Red Sea and recapture Mecca.^[64] On 16 October 1916, Lawrence was sent to the Hejaz on an intelligence-gathering mission led byRonald Storrs.^[65] He interviewed Sharif Hussein's sonsAli,Abdullah, andFaisal,^[66] and concluded that Faisal was the best candidate to lead the Revolt.^[67]

In November,S. F. Newcombe was assigned to lead a permanent British liaison to Faisal's staff.^[68] Newcombe had not yet arrived in the area and the matter was of some urgency, so Lawrence was sent in his place.^[69] In late December 1916, Faisal and Lawrence worked out a plan for repositioning the Arab forces to put the railway from Syria under threat while preventing the Ottoman forces around Medina from threatening Arab positions.^[70] Newcombe arrived while Lawrence was preparing to leave Arabia, but Faisal intervened urgently, asking that Lawrence's assignment become permanent.^[71]

Lawrence's most important contributions to the Arab Revolt were in the area of strategy and liaison with British Armed Forces, but he also participated personally in several military engagements:

• 3 January 1917: Attack on an Ottoman outpost in theHejaz^[72]
• 26 March 1917: Attack on the railway at Aba el Naam^[73][74]
• 11 June 1917: Attack on a bridge atRas Baalbek^[75]
• 2 July 1917: Defeat of the Ottoman forces at Aba el Lissan, an outpost of Aqaba^[76]
• 18 September 1917: Attack on the railway nearMudawara^[77]
• 27 September 1917: Attack on the railway, destroyed an engine^[78]
• 7 November 1917: Following a failed attack on theYarmuk bridges, blew up a train on the railway betweenDera'a andAmman, suffering several wounds in the explosion and ensuing combat^[79]
• 25–26 January 1918:The Battle of Tafilah,^[80] a region southeast of theDead Sea, with Arab regulars under the command ofJafar Pasha al-Askari;^[81] the battle was a defensive engagement that turned into an offensive rout,^[82] and was described in the official history of the war as a "brilliant feat of arms".^[81] Lawrence was awarded theDistinguished Service Order for his leadership at Tafilah and was promoted to lieutenant colonel.^[81]
• March 1918: Attack on the railway near Aqaba^[83]
• 19 April 1918: Attack using British armoured cars on Tell Shahm^[84]
• 16 September 1918: Destruction of railway bridge between Amman and Dera'a^[85]
• 26 September 1918: Attack on retreating Ottomans and Germans near the village ofTafas. The Ottoman forcesmassacred the villagers and then Arab forces in return massacred their prisoners with Lawrence's encouragement.^[86]

Lawrence made a 300-mile (480 km) personal journey northward in June 1917, on the way to Aqaba, visitingRas Baalbek, the outskirts of Damascus, andAzraq, Jordan.^[87] He met Arab nationalists, counselling them to avoid revolt until the arrival of Faisal's forces, and he attacked a bridge to create the impression of guerrilla activity.^[88] His findings were regarded by the British as extremely valuable and there was serious consideration of awarding him aVictoria Cross; in the end, he was invested as a Companion of theOrder of the Bath and promoted to major.^[1][89]

Lawrence travelled regularly between British headquarters and Faisal, co-ordinating military action.^[90] But by early 1918, Faisal's chief British liaison was Lieutenant Colonel Pierce Charles Joyce, and Lawrence's time was chiefly devoted to raiding and intelligence-gathering.^[91]

The chief elements of the Arab strategy that Faisal and Lawrence developed were to avoid capturingMedina, and to extend northward through Maan and Dera'a to Damascus and beyond. Faisal wanted to lead regular attacks against the Ottomans, but Lawrence persuaded him to drop that tactic.^[92] Lawrence wrote about theBedouin as a fighting force:

The value of the tribes is defensive only and their real sphere is guerilla warfare. They are intelligent, and very lively, almost reckless, but too individualistic to endure commands, or fight in line, or to help each other. It would, I think, be impossible to make an organized force out of them.… The Hejaz war is one of dervishes against regular forces—and we are on the side of the dervishes. Our text-books do not apply to its conditions at all.^[92]

Medina was an attractive target for the revolt as Islam's second-holiest site, and because its Ottoman garrison was weakened by disease and isolation.^[93] It became clear that it was advantageous to leave it there rather than try to capture it, while attacking theHejaz railway south from Damascus without permanently destroying it.^[94] This prevented the Ottomans from making effective use of their troops at Medina, and forced them to dedicate many resources to defending and repairing the railway line.^[94][95][96] However, Aldington strongly disagrees with the value of the strategy.^[97]

It is not known when Lawrence learned the details of the Sykes–Picot Agreement, nor if or when he briefed Faisal on what he knew, however, there is good reason to think that both these things happened, and earlier rather than later.^[98][99] In particular, the Arab strategy of northward extension makes perfect sense given the Sykes–Picot language that spoke of an independent Arab entity in Syria, which would be granted only if the Arabs liberated the territory themselves.^[100] The French and some of their British Liaison officers were specifically uncomfortable about the northward movement, as it would weaken French colonial claims.^[101][102]

In 1917, Lawrence proposed a joint action with the Arabirregulars and forces includingAuda Abu Tayi, who had previously been in the employ of the Ottomans, against the strategically located but lightly defended town of Aqaba on the Red Sea.^{[103][104][105]} Aqaba could have been attacked from the sea but, assuming it were captured, the narrow defiles leading inland through the mountains were strongly defended and would have been very difficult to assault.^[106] The expedition was led by Sharif Nasir of Medina.^[107]

Lawrence avoided informing his British superiors about the details of the planned inland attack, due to concern that it would be blocked as contrary to French interests.^[108] The expedition departed fromWejh on 9 May,^[109] and Aqaba fell to the Arab forces on 6 July, after a surprise overland attack that took the Turkish defences from behind. After Aqaba,General Sir Edmund Allenby, the new commander-in-chief of theEgyptian Expeditionary Force, agreed to Lawrence's strategy for the revolt.^[110] Lawrence now held a powerful position as an adviser to Faisal and a person who had Allenby's confidence, as Allenby acknowledged after the war:

I gave him a free hand. His cooperation was marked by the utmost loyalty, and I never had anything but praise for his work, which, indeed, was invaluable throughout the campaign. He was the mainspring of the Arab movement and knew their language, their manners and their mentality.^[111]

Lawrence describes an episode on 20 November 1917 while reconnoitringDera'a in disguise, when he was captured by the Ottoman military, beaten, and sexually assaulted by the localbey and his guardsmen,^[112] though he does not specify the nature of the sexual contact. Some scholars have stated that he exaggerated the severity of the injuries that he suffered,^[113] or alleged that the episode never happened.^[114][115] There is no independent testimony, but the multiple consistent reports and the absence of evidence for outright invention in Lawrence's works make the account believable to some of his biographers.^[116] Malcolm Brown,John E. Mack, andJeremy Wilson have argued that this episode had strong psychological effects on Lawrence, which may explain some of his unconventional behaviour in later life.^{[117][118][119]} Lawrence ended his account of the episode inSeven Pillars of Wisdom with the statement: "In Dera'a that night the citadel of my integrity had been irrevocably lost."^[120]

The son of the Governor resident in Dera'a at the time has been quoted as saying the narrative must be false, because Lawrence describes the Bey's hair, while in fact his father was bald.^[121] In fact, Lawrence describes (in the 1922 text) the Bey's head as shaven, with stubble standing up. There is also uncertainty about the identity of the individual that Lawrence refers to as "the Bey".^[122]

Lawrence was involved in the build-up to the capture of Damascus in the final weeks of the war, but he was not present at the city's formal surrender. He arrived several hours after the city had fallen, entering Damascus around 9 am on 1 October 1918; the first to arrive was the10th Light Horse Regiment led by Major A. C. N. "Harry" Olden, who accepted the formal surrender of the city from acting Governor Emir Said.^[123][124] Lawrence was instrumental in establishing a provisional Arab government under Faisal in newly liberated Damascus, which he had envisioned as the capital of an Arab state.^[125] Faisal's rule as king, however, came to an abrupt end in 1920, after thebattle of Maysaloun when the French Forces ofGeneral Henri Gouraud entered Damascus under the command of GeneralMariano Goybet, destroying Lawrence's dream of an independent Arabia.^[126]

During the closing years of the war, Lawrence sought to convince his superiors in the British government that Arab independence was in their interests, but he met with mixed success.^[127] The secret Sykes–Picot Agreement between France and Britain contradicted the promises of independence that he had made to the Arabs and frustrated his work.^[128]

Lawrence returned to the United Kingdom a full colonel.^[129] Immediately after the war, he worked for theForeign Office, attending theParis Peace Conference between January and May as a member of Faisal's delegation. On 17 May 1919, aHandley Page Type O/400 taking Lawrence to Egypt crashed at the airport ofRoma-Centocelle. The pilot and co-pilot were killed; Lawrence survived with a broken shoulder blade and two broken ribs.^[130] During his brief hospitalisation, he was visited by KingVictor Emmanuel III of Italy.^[131]

In 1918,Lowell Thomas went to Jerusalem where he met Lawrence, "whose enigmatic figure in Arab uniform fired his imagination", in the words of author Rex Hall.^[133] Thomas and his cameraman Harry Chase shot a great deal of film and many photographs involving Lawrence. Thomas produced a stage presentation entitledWith Allenby in Palestine which included a lecture, dancing, and music^[134] and depicted the Middle East as exotic, mysterious, sensuous, and violent.^[134]The show premiered in New York in March 1919.^[135] He was invited to take his show to England, and he agreed to do so provided that he was personally invited by the King and provided the use of eitherDrury Lane orCovent Garden.^[136] He opened at Covent Garden on 14 August 1919 and continued for hundreds of lectures, "attended by the highest in the land".^[133][137]

Initially, Lawrence played only a supporting role in the show, as the main focus was on Allenby's campaigns; but then Thomas realised that it was the photos of Lawrence dressed as a Bedouin which had captured the public's imagination, so he had Lawrence photographed again in London in Arab dress.^[134] With the new photos, Thomas re-launched his show under the new titleWith Allenby in Palestine and Lawrence in Arabia in early 1920, which proved to be extremely popular.^[134] The new title elevated Lawrence from a supporting role to a co-star of the Near Eastern campaign and reflected a changed emphasis. Thomas' shows made the previously obscure Lawrence into a household name.^[134] Lawrence worked with Thomas on the creation of the presentation, answering many questions and posing for many photographs.^[138] After its success, however, he expressed regret about having been featured in it.^[139]

Lawrence served as an advisor toWinston Churchill at theColonial Office for just over a year starting in February 1920.^[140] He hated bureaucratic work, writing on 21 May 1921 toRobert Graves: "I wish I hadn't gone out there: the Arabs are like a page I have turned over; and sequels are rotten things. I'm locked up here: office every day and much of it".^[141] He travelled to the Middle East on multiple occasions during this period, at one time holding the title of "chief political officer forTrans-Jordania".^[142] He campaigned for his and Churchill's vision of the Middle East, publishing pieces in multiple newspapers, includingThe Times,The Observer,The Daily Mail, andThe Daily Express.^[143]

Lawrence had a sinister reputation in France during his lifetime and even today as an implacable "enemy of France", the man who was constantly stirring up the Syrians to rebel againstFrench rule throughout the 1920s.^[144] However, French historian Maurice Larès wrote that the real reason for France's problems in Syria was that the Syrians did not want to be ruled by France, and the French needed a scapegoat to blame for their difficulties in ruling the country.^[145] Larès wrote that Lawrence is usually pictured in France as a Francophobe, but he was really a Francophile.^[145]

Having seen and admired the effective use of air power during the war,^[146] Lawrence enlisted in the Royal Air Force as an aircraftman, under the nameJohn Hume Ross in August 1922.^[147] At the RAF recruiting centre in Covent Garden, London, he was interviewed by recruiting officer Flying OfficerW. E. Johns, later known as the author of theBiggles series of novels.^[148] Johns rejected Lawrence's application, as he suspected that "Ross" was a false name. Lawrence admitted that this was so and that he had provided false documents. He left, but returned some time later with an RAF messenger who carried a written order that Johns must accept Lawrence.^[149]

However, Lawrence was forced out of the RAF in February 1923 after his identity was exposed. He changed his name toT. E. Shaw (apparently as a consequence of his friendship withGeorge Bernard Shaw and Charlotte Shaw^[150]) and joined theRoyal Tank Corps later that year.^[151] He was unhappy there and repeatedly petitioned to rejoin the RAF, which finally readmitted him in August 1925.^[152] A fresh burst of publicity after the publication ofRevolt in the Desert resulted in his assignment to bases atKarachi andMiramshah inBritish India (now Pakistan) in late 1926,^[153][154] where he remained until the end of 1928. At that time, he was forced to return to Britain after rumours began to circulate that he was involved in espionage activities.^[155]

He purchased several small plots of land inChingford, built a hut and swimming pool there, and visited frequently. The hut was removed in 1930 when Chingford Urban District Council acquired the land; it was given to theCity of London Corporation which re-erected it in the grounds of The Warren,Loughton. Lawrence's tenure of the Chingford land has now been commemorated by a plaque fixed on theRoyal Observatory, Greenwich sighting obelisk onPole Hill.^[156]

Lawrence continued serving at several RAF bases, notably atRAF Mount Batten near Plymouth,RAF Calshot near Southampton,^[157] andRAF Bridlington in theEast Riding of Yorkshire.^[158] In the inter-war period, the RAF'sMarine Craft Section began to commission air-sea rescue launches capable of higher speeds and greater capacity. The arrival of high-speed craft into the MCS was driven in part by Lawrence. He had previously witnessed a seaplane crew drowning when theseaplane tender sent to their rescue was too slow in arriving. He worked withHubert Scott-Paine, the founder of theBritish Power Boat Company (BPBC), to introduce the 37.5-foot (11.4 m) long ST 200 Seaplane Tender Mk1 into service. These boats had a range of 140 miles (230 km) when cruising at 24 knots and could achieve a top speed of 29 knots.^[159][160]

He professed happiness, and he left the service with considerable regret at the end of his enlistment in March 1935.^[161]

In a tribute to Lawrence in 1936 Churchill wrote:

He saw as clearly as anyone the vision of airpower and all that it would mean in traffic and war. ... He felt that in living the life of a private in the Royal Air Force he would dignify that honorable calling and help to attract all that is keenest in our youthful manhood to the sphere where it is most urgently needed. For this service and example, ... we owe him a separate debt. It was in itself a princely gift.^[146]

Lawrence was a keen motorcyclist and owned eightBrough Superior motorcycles at different times.^[162][163] His last SS100 (Registration GW 2275) is privately owned but has been on loan to theNational Motor Museum, Beaulieu^[164] and theImperial War Museum in London.^[165] In 1934, he motorcycled over 200 miles fromManchester toWinchester to meetEugène Vinaver, editor of theWinchester Manuscript ofThomas Malory'sLe Morte d'Arthur,^[166] a book which he admired and carried on his campaigns.^[167]

On 13 May 1935, Lawrence was fatally injured in an accident on hisBrough Superior SS100 motorcycle inDorset close to his cottageClouds Hill, nearBovington Camp, just two months after leaving military service.^[168] A dip in the road obstructed his view of two boys on their bicycles; he swerved to avoid them, lost control, and was thrown over the handlebars.^[169] He died six days later on 19 May 1935, aged 46.^[169] The location of the crash is marked by a small memorial at the roadside.^[170] One of the doctors attending him was neurosurgeonHugh Cairns, who consequently began a long study of the loss of life by motorcycle dispatch riders through head injuries. His research led to the use ofcrash helmets by both military and civilian motorcyclists.^[171]

TheMoreton estate borders Bovington Camp, and Lawrence bought Clouds Hill from his cousins, the Frampton family. He had been a frequent visitor to their home, Oakers Wood House, and had corresponded with Louisa Frampton for years. Lawrence's mother arranged with the Framptons to have his body buried in their family plot in the separate burial ground ofSt Nicholas' Church, Moreton.^[172][173] The coffin was transported on the Frampton estate's bier. Mourners included Winston Churchill,E. M. Forster,Lady Astor, and Lawrence's youngest brother Arnold.^[174] Churchill described him like this: "Lawrence was one of those beings whose pace of life was faster and more intense than what is normal."^[175][176]

The inquest into Lawrence's death was conducted hurriedly and there was conflicting testimony, particularly in the report of a "black car" which may or may not have been present at the scene of the accident, and the behaviour of the bicycling boys.^[177] Some have speculated that Lawrence was assassinated but, due to a lack of supporting evidence, it is generally accepted that his death was an accident.^[178]

Lawrence was a prolific writer throughout his life, a large portion of which wasepistolary; he often sent several letters a day, and a number of collections of his letters have been published. He corresponded with many notable figures, includingGeorge Bernard Shaw,Edward Elgar, Winston Churchill, Robert Graves,Noël Coward, E. M. Forster,Siegfried Sassoon,John Buchan,Augustus John, andHenry Williamson.^[179] He metJoseph Conrad and commented perceptively on his works. Lawrence sent many letters to Shaw's wife,Charlotte.^[180]

Lawrence was a competent speaker of French and Arabic, and reader of Latin andAncient Greek.^[181] Lawrence published three major texts in his lifetime. The most significant was his account of the Arab Revolt inSeven Pillars of Wisdom.^[182]Homer'sOdyssey andThe Forest Giant were translations, the latter an otherwise forgotten work of French fiction.^[183] He received a flat fee for the second translation, and negotiated a generous fee plus royalties for the first.^[184]

Lawrence's major work isSeven Pillars of Wisdom, an account of his war experiences. In 1919, he was elected to a seven-year research fellowship atAll Souls College, Oxford, providing him with support while he worked on the book.^[185] Certain parts of the book also serve as essays on military strategy, Arabian culture and geography, and other topics. He rewroteSeven Pillars of Wisdom three times, once "blind" after he lost the manuscript.^[186]

There are many alleged "embellishments" inSeven Pillars, though some allegations have been disproved with time, most definitively in Jeremy Wilson'sauthorised biography.^[187] However, Lawrence's own notebooks refute his claim to have crossed theSinai Peninsula from Aqaba to the Suez Canal in just 49 hours without any sleep. In reality, this famous camel ride lasted for more than 70 hours and was interrupted by two long breaks for sleeping, which Lawrence omitted when he wrote his book.^[188]

In the preface, Lawrence acknowledged George Bernard Shaw's help in editing the book. The first edition was published in 1926 as a high-priced private subscription edition, printed in London byHerbert John Hodgson and Roy Manning Pike, with illustrations byEric Kennington, Augustus John,Paul Nash,Blair Hughes-Stanton,^[189] and Hughes-Stanton's wifeGertrude Hermes. Lawrence was afraid that the public would think that he would make a substantial income from the book, and he stated that it was written as a result of his war service. He vowed not to take any money from it, and indeed he did not, as the sale price was one third of the production costs,^[190] leaving him in substantial debt.^[191] He always took care not to give the impression that he had profited economically from the Arab revolt. In a 'deleted chapter' of theSeven Pillars which reappeared in 2022, Lawrence wrote:

For my work on the Arab front I had determined to accept nothing. The cabinet raised the Arabs to fight for us by definite promises of self-government afterwards. Arabs believe in persons, not in institutions. They saw in me a free agent of the British government, and demanded from me an endorsement of its written promises. So I had to join the conspiracy, and, for what my word was worth, assured the men of their reward. In our two years' partnership under fire they grew accustomed to believing me and to think my government, like myself, sincere. In this hope they performed some fine things but, of course, instead of being proud of what we did together, I was continually and bitterly ashamed.^[192]

As a specialist in the Middle East,Fred Halliday praised Lawrence'sSeven Pillars of Wisdom as a "fine work of prose" but described its relevance to the study of Arab history and society as "almost worthless."^[193]

Stanford historianPriya Satia observes thatSeven Pillars presents the Middle East with a broadly positive, yet 'Orientalist' perspective. Lawrence's romanticised and vivid depictions transformed him into a sought-after symbol of Britain's leadership and goodwill in the Middle East. This occurred during a time when Britain's global influence was waning, and the nation was grappling with the aftermath of the First World War. Therefore, his "...books evoked a vision of redemption from the troubled spirit of the age" and offered a "reassurance of continuity" with Britain's triumphant history.^[194]

Revolt in the Desert was an abridged version ofSeven Pillars that he began in 1926 and that was published in March 1927 in both limited and trade editions.^[195] He undertook a needed but reluctant publicity exercise, which resulted in a best-seller. Again he vowed not to take any fees from the publication, partly to appease the subscribers toSeven Pillars who had paid dearly for their editions. By the fourth reprint in 1927, the debt fromSeven Pillars was paid off.^[196] As Lawrence left for military service in India at the end of 1926, he set up the "Seven Pillars Trust" with his friend D. G. Hogarth as a trustee, in which he made over the copyright and any surplus income ofRevolt in the Desert. He later told Hogarth that he had "made the Trust final, to save myself the temptation of reviewing it, ifRevolt turned out a best seller."^[197]

The resultant trust paid off the debt, and Lawrence then invoked a clause in his publishing contract to halt publication of the abridgement in the United Kingdom. However, he allowed both American editions and translations, which resulted in a substantial flow of income.^[196] The trust paid income either into an educational fund for children of RAF officers who lost their lives or were invalided as a result of service, or more substantially into theRAF Benevolent Fund.^[198]

Lawrence leftThe Mint unpublished,^[199] a memoir of his experiences as an enlisted man in the Royal Air Force (RAF). For this, he worked from a notebook that he kept while enlisted, writing of the daily lives of enlisted men and his desire to be a part of something larger than himself.^[200] The book is stylistically different fromSeven Pillars of Wisdom, using sparse prose as opposed to the complicated syntax found inSeven Pillars. It was published posthumously, edited by his brotherArnold.^[201]

After Lawrence's death, Arnold Lawrence inherited Lawrence's estate and his copyrights as the sole beneficiary. To pay the inheritance tax, he sold the US copyright ofSeven Pillars of Wisdom (subscribers' text) outright toDoubleday Doran in 1935.^[202] Doubleday controlled publication rights of this version of the text ofSeven Pillars of Wisdom in the US until the copyright expired at the end of 2022 (publication plus 95 years). In 1936, A. W. Lawrence split the remaining assets of the estate, giving Clouds Hill and many copies of less substantial or historical letters to theNational Trust, and then set up two trusts to control interests in his brother's residual copyrights.^[203] He assigned the copyright inSeven Pillars of Wisdom to the Seven Pillars of Wisdom Trust,^[204] and it was given its first general publication as a result.^[205] He assigned the copyright inThe Mint and all Lawrence's letters to the Letters and Symposium Trust,^[202] which he edited and published in the bookT. E. Lawrence by his Friends in 1937. The work contained recollections and reminiscences by a large number of Lawrence's friends and colleagues.^[202]

A substantial amount of income went directly to the RAF Benevolent Fund and to archaeological, environmental, and academic projects.^[206] The two trusts were amalgamated in 1986, and the unified trust acquired all the remaining rights to Lawrence's works that it had not owned on the death of A. W. Lawrence in 1991, plus rights to all of A. W. Lawrence's works.^[203] The UK copyrights on Lawrence's works published in his lifetime and within 20 years of his death expired on 1 January 2006. Works published more than 20 years after his death were protected for 50 years from publication or to 1 January 2040, whichever is earlier.^[207]

• The 1911 Diary of a Journey across theEuphrates
• Military Report on the Sinai Peninsula (1914) restricted publication by the War Office General Staff. Published by Castle Hill Press (1990)
• Military Handbook on Palestine (1917)
• Arab Memorandum to the Paris Peace Conference (1919)
• Sidelights on the Arab War (1919) - article published inThe Times on 4 September 1919.
• Seven Pillars of Wisdom, (1922, revised and shortened in 1926) - an account of Lawrence's part in the Arab Revolt. (ISBN 0-8488-0562-3)
• Revolt in the Desert, a further abridged version ofSeven Pillars of Wisdom published for the general public. (ISBN 1-56619-275-7)
• Guerrilla Warfare, article in the 1929Encyclopaedia Britannica^[208]

• Crusader Castles, Lawrence's Oxford BA thesis in 1910. London: Michael Haag 1986 (ISBN 0-902743-53-8). The first edition was published in London in 1936 by theGolden Cockerel Press, in 2 volumes, limited to 1000 copies.
• The Mint, (1955) - an account of Lawrence's service in the Royal Air Force. (ISBN 0-393-00196-2)
• Myself - obituary published in theEvening Standard
• Oriental Assembly (1939)
• Secret Despatches from Arabia (1939) - expanded asWartime Diaries and Letters (1990)
• The Essential T. E. Lawrence (1951)
• The Evolution of a Revolt: Early Post-War Writings (1968)
• Towards 'An English Fourth' (2009)
• The Advance of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force
• War in the Desert (2016) - the abandoned abridgement of the 1922 Oxford Text ofSeven Pillars of Wisdom that has never been published before, co-authored withEdward Garnett (Edited by Nicole andJeremy Wilson)

• Letters from T. E. Shaw to Viscount Carlow (1936) - 17 privately printed copies
• The Letters of T. E. Lawrence edited byDavid Garnett. (1938, corrected edition - 1964)
• T. E. Lawrence to his Biographer Robert Graves, edited byRobert Graves and B. H. Liddell Hart
• The Letters of T. E. Lawrence selected and edited by Malcolm Brown. London, J. M Dent. 1988 (ISBN 0-460-04733-7)
• Eight Letters from T.E.L. [to Harley Granville-Barker] - Privately printed, 1939, fifty copies.
• C. Sydney Smith, The Golden Reign (Contains fifty letters from Lawrence to Sydney Smith) London, Cassell, 1940.
• H. S. Ede (ed.), Shaw—Ede, T. E. Lawrence's Letters to H. S. Ede 1927-1935 London, Golden Cockerel Press, 1942, 500 copies.
• M. R. Lawrence (ed.), The Home Letters of T. E. Lawrence and his Brothers Oxford, Basil Blackwell; NY, Macmillan, 1954
• T.E.L. Five Hitherto Unpublished Letters [to R. V. Buxton] - Privately printed, 1975, fifty copies.
• H. Montgomery Hyde, Solitary in the Ranks, Lawrence of Arabia as Airman and Private Soldier (An account of Lawrence's service life built around his correspondence with Lord Trenchard.) London, Constable, 1977; New York, Atheneum, 1978.

Edited by Jeremy and Nicole Wilson, Castle Hill Press

1. Letters from T. E. Lawrence to E. T. Leeds Andoversford (1988). Whittington Press
2. T. E. Lawrence. Letters^[209]
3. Correspondence with Bernard and Charlotte Shaw (4 volumes) (1922–35)
4. Boats for the RAF (1929–35)
5. Correspondence withE. M. Forster and F. L. Lucas
6. More Correspondence with Writers
7. Correspondence with Edward and David Garnett
8. Correspondence withHenry Williamson
9. Correspondence with the Political Elite 1922-1935
10. Translating the Bruce Rogers Odyssey
11. T. E. Lawrence, Bruce Rogers, and Homer’s Odyssey
12. Printing and IllustratingSeven Pillars of Wisdom

• The Wilderness of Zin London, Harrison and Sons, (1914)^[210]
• Carchemish - Report on the Excavations at Djerabis on Behalf of the British Museum (1914) - 2 volumes

• Men in Print (1940)

• Minorities: Good Poems by Small Poets and Small Poems by Good Poets, edited by Jeremy Wilson, 1971. Lawrence'scommonplace book includes an introduction by Wilson that explains how the poems comprising the book reflected Lawrence's life and thoughts.

• Garroot: Adventures of a Clydeside Apprentice (1933) by Ian McKinnon (Pseudonym: I. Tyre). London. Jonathan Cape

• The Odyssey ofHomer - translation from the Ancient Greek, first published in 1932. (ISBN 0-19-506818-1)
• A Poem byFaisal I of Iraq Translation from the Arabic
• 2 Arabic Folktales (1937) - posthumously published translation from the Arabic
• The Forest Giant by Adrien Le Corbeau, novel, translation from the French, 1924.

Lawrence's biographers have discussed his sexuality at considerable length and this discussion has spilled into the popular press.^[211] There is no direct evidence for consensual sexual intimacy between Lawrence and any person. His friends have expressed the opinion that he wasasexual,^[212][213] and Lawrence himself specifically denied any personal experience of sex in multiple private letters.^[214] There were suggestions that Lawrence had been intimate with his companion Selim Ahmed, "Dahoum", who worked with him at a pre-war archaeological dig in Carchemish,^[215] and fellow serviceman R. A. M. Guy,^[216] but his biographers and contemporaries found them unconvincing.^{[215][216][217]}

The dedication to his bookSeven Pillars is a poem titled "To S.A." which opens:^[218]

I loved you, so I drew these tides of men into my hands
and wrote my will across the sky in stars
To earn you Freedom, the seven-pillared worthy house,
that your eyes might be shining for me
When we came.

Lawrence was never specific about the identity of "S.A." Many theories argue in favour of individual men or women, and the Arab nation as a whole.^[219] The most popular theory is that S.A. represents (at least in part) Dahoum, who apparently died oftyphus before 1918.^{[220][221][222][223][224]}

Lawrence lived in a period of strong official opposition to homosexuality, but his writing on the subject was tolerant. He wrote to Charlotte Shaw, "I've seen lots of man-and-man loves: very lovely and fortunate some of them were."^[225] He refers to "the openness and honesty of perfect love" on one occasion inSeven Pillars, when discussing relationships between young male fighters in the war.^[226] The passage in the front matter is referred to with the single-word tag "Sex".^[227]

He wrote in Chapter 1 ofSeven Pillars:

In horror of such sordid commerce [diseased female prostitutes] our youths began indifferently to slake one another's few needs in their own clean bodies — a cold convenience that, by comparison, seemed sexless and even pure. Later, some began to justify this sterile process, and swore that friends quivering together in the yielding sand with intimate hot limbs in supreme embrace, found there hidden in the darkness a sensual co-efficient of the mental passion which was welding our souls and spirits in one flaming effort [to secure Arab independence]. Several, thirsting to punish appetites they could not wholly prevent, took a savage pride in degrading the body, and offered themselves fiercely in any habit which promised physical pain or filth.^[228]

There is considerable evidence that Lawrence was amasochist. He wrote in his description of the Dera'a beating that "a delicious warmth, probably sexual, was swelling through me," and he also included a detailed description of the guards' whip in a style typical of masochists' writing.^[229] In later life, Lawrence arranged to pay a military colleague to administer beatings to him,^[230] and to be subjected to severe formal tests of fitness and stamina.^[213] John Bruce first wrote on this topic, including some other statements that were not credible, but Lawrence's biographers regard the beatings as established fact.^[231] French novelistAndré Malraux admired Lawrence but wrote that he had a "taste for self-humiliation, now by discipline and now by veneration; a horror of respectability; a disgust for possessions".^[232] BiographerLawrence James wrote that the evidence suggested a "strong homosexual masochism", noting that he never sought punishment from women.^[233]

PsychiatristJohn E. Mack sees a possible connection between Lawrence's masochism and the childhood beatings that he had received from his mother^[234] for routine misbehaviours.^[235] His brother Arnold thought that the beatings had been given for the purpose of breaking his brother's will.^[235]Angus Calder suggested in 1997 that Lawrence's apparent masochism and self-loathing might have stemmed from asense of guilt over losing his brothers Frank and Will on the Western Front, along with many other school friends, while he survived.^[236]

In 1955Richard Aldington publishedLawrence of Arabia: A Biographical Enquiry, a sustained attack on Lawrence's character, writing, accomplishments, and truthfulness. Aldington alleged that Lawrence lied and exaggerated continuously ("Seven Pillars of Wisdom is rather a work of quasi-fiction than history",^[237] "It was seldom that he reported any fact or episode involving himself without embellishing them and indeed in some cases entirely inventing them."),^[238] that he promoted a misguided policy in the Middle East, that his strategy of containing but not capturing Medina was incorrect, and thatSeven Pillars of Wisdom was a bad book with few redeeming features.^[239]

Aldington argued that the French colonial administration of Syria (resisted by Lawrence) had benefited that country^[240] and that Arabia's peoples were "far enough advanced for some government though not for complete self-government."^[241] He was also a Francophile, railing against Lawrence's "Francophobia, a hatred and an envy so irrational, so irresponsible and so unscrupulous that it is fair to say his attitude towards Syria was determined more by hatred of France than by devotion to the 'Arabs' – a convenient propaganda word which grouped many disharmonious and even mutually hostile tribes and peoples."^[242]

Aldington wrote that Lawrence embellished many stories and invented others, and in particular that his claims involving numbers were usually inflated – for example claims of having read 50,000 books in the Oxford Union library,^[243] of having blown up 79 bridges,^[244] of having had a price of £50,000 on his head,^[245] and of having suffered 60 or more injuries.^[246]

Prior to the publication of Aldington's book, its contents became known in London's literary community. A group Aldington and some subsequent authors referred to as "The Lawrence Bureau",^[247] led byB. H. Liddell Hart,^[248] tried energetically, starting in 1954, to have the book suppressed.^[249] When that effort failed, Hart prepared and distributed hundreds of copies ofAldington's 'Lawrence': His Charges – and Treatment of the Evidence, a 7-page single-spaced document.^[250] This worked: Aldington's book received many extremely negative and even abusive reviews, with strong evidence that some reviewers had read Liddell's rebuttal but not Aldington's book.^[251]

Notwithstanding the furore caused by Aldington's assault on the Lawrence legend, many of Aldington's specific claims against Lawrence have been accepted by subsequent biographers. InRichard Aldington and Lawrence of Arabia: A Cautionary Tale, Fred D. Crawford writes "Much that shocked in 1955 is now standard knowledge – that TEL was illegitimate, that this profoundly troubled him, that he frequently resented his mother's dominance, that such reminiscences asT. E. Lawrence by His Friends are not reliable, that TEL's leg-pulling and other adolescent traits could be offensive, that TEL took liberties with the truth in his official reports andSeven Pillars, that the significance of his exploits during the Arab Revolt was more political than military, that he contributed to his own myth, that when he vetted the books by Graves and Liddell Hart he let remain much that he knew was untrue, and that his feelings about publicity were ambiguous."^[252]

This has not prevented most post-Aldington biographers (including Fred D. Crawford, who studied Aldington's claims intensely)^[253] from expressing strong admiration for Lawrence's military, political, and writing achievements.^[254][255] Despite the generally deprecatory tenor of his "biographical inquiry", Aldington himself was not without words of praise for Lawrence; in outlining his goal of "clearing the ground a little and removing some of the rubbish that lies in the way of knowledge", he says that his doing so is "not to deny that Lawrence was a man of peculiar abilities", and calls him an "extraordinary man".^[256]

Lawrence was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath on 7 August 1917,^[1] appointed aCompanion of the Distinguished Service Order on 10 May 1918,^[2] awarded theKnight of the Legion of Honour (France) on 30 May 1916^[3] and theCroix de guerre (France) on 16 April 1918.^[4]

He wasmentioned in despatches bySir John Maxwell (General Officer Commanding, Egypt) on 16 March 1916,^[257] bySir Percy Lake (CommandingIndian Expeditionary Force D) on 12 August 1916,^[258] and bySir Reginald Wingate (General Officer Commanding, Hedjaz) on 27 December 1918.^[259]

King George V offered Lawrence a knighthood on 30 October 1918 at a private audience inBuckingham Palace for his services in the Arab Revolt, but he declined.^[260][261] He was unwilling to accept the honour in light of how his country had betrayed the Arabs.^[262]

A bronze bust of Lawrence by Eric Kennington was placed in the crypt ofSt Paul's Cathedral, London, in January 1936, alongside the tombs of Britain's greatest military leaders.^[134] In 1939, a recumbent stone effigy by Kennington was installed inSt Martin's Church, Wareham, Dorset.^[263][264]

Jesus College commissioned a close parallel of the portrait by Augustus John from the artistAlix Jennings as their official memorial to Lawrence.^{[265][266][267][268]}

AnEnglish Heritageblue plaque marks Lawrence's childhood home at 2 Polstead Road, Oxford. Another is on his London home at 14 Barton Street, Westminster.^[269][270] In 2002, Lawrence was named 53rd in theBBC's list of the100 Greatest Britons, following a UK-wide vote.^[271]

In 2018, Lawrence was featured on a £5 coin, issued in silver and gold, in a six-coin set commemorating the Centenary of the First World War, produced by theRoyal Mint.^[272]

• Alexander Korda bought the film rights toThe Seven Pillars in the 1930s. The production was in development, with various actors cast as the lead, such asLeslie Howard.^[273]
• Peter O'Toole was nominated for anAcademy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Lawrence in the 1962 filmLawrence of Arabia. In 2003, theAmerican Film Institute ranked his portrayal as the10th greatest film hero of all time.^[274]
• The 1990 television filmA Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia, starringRalph Fiennes as Lawrence, depicted events after those inLawrence of Arabia (1962).^[275]
• Peter O'Toole's portrayal of Lawrence inspired behavioural affectations in the androidDavid, portrayed byMichael Fassbender in the 2012 filmPrometheus and its 2017 sequelAlien: Covenant, both of which are part of theAlien franchise.^[276]
• Robert Pattinson portrays Lawrence inWerner Herzog's 2015 filmQueen of the Desert which centres on Gertrude Bell's time in Arabia and depicts the friendship between the pair.^[277]
• The 2021 filmLawrence: After Arabia discusses and advocates for numerous conspiracy theories surrounding Lawrence's death.^[278]

• The T. E. Lawrence Poems was published by Canadian poetGwendolyn MacEwen in 1982. The poems rely on, and quote directly from, primary material includingSeven Pillars and the collected letters.^[279]
• Dreaming of Samarkand, published by Martin Booth in 1989, is a fictionalised account of Lawrence's time in Carchemish, and his relationship withJames Elroy Flecker.^[280]
• The Waters of Babylon, published by David Stevens in 2000, is a novel concerning Lawrence's time in the RAF, in which he reflects on his past and enters into a relationship with a (fictional) airman named Slaney.^[281]
• Dreamers of the Day, written by Mary Doria Russell in 2008, follows fictional protagonist Agnes Shankin as she finds herself involved in the 1921 Cairo Peace Conference, and her interactions with Lawrence, as well as with Winston Churchill and Gertrude Bell.^[282]
• Empire of Sand, written by Robert Ryan in 2008, is a fictionalised take on his time in Cairo and his clashes with a German spy.^[283]
• George: A Novel of T. E. Lawrence, written by E. B. Lomax in 2017, postulates on an alternate universe in which Lawrence survived the fatal motorcycle accident with full amnesia of his past.^[284]

• Lawrence is a semi-recurring character in the 1992-1993 US TV seriesThe Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, appearing in three different episodes as a friend of Indiana Jones.^[285]
• He was also portrayed in a Syrian series calledLawrence Al Arab, directed by Thaer Mousa in 2008. The series consisted of 37 episodes, each between 45 minutes and one hour in length.^[286]

• The character of Private Napoleon Meek in George Bernard Shaw's 1931 playToo True to Be Good was inspired by Lawrence. Meek is depicted as conversant with the language and lifestyle of the native tribes. He repeatedly enlists with the army, quitting whenever offered a promotion. Lawrence attended a performance of the play's originalWorcestershire run, and reportedly signed autographs for patrons attending the show.^[287]
• Lawrence was the subject ofTerence Rattigan's controversial playRoss, which explored Lawrence's alleged homosexuality.Ross ran in London in 1960–1961, starringAlec Guinness, who was an admirer of Lawrence, andGerald Harper as his blackmailer, Dickinson. The play had been written as a screenplay, but the planned film was never made. In January 1986 at theTheatre Royal, Plymouth, on the opening night of the revival ofRoss,Marc Sinden, who was playing Dickinson (the man who recognised and blackmailed Lawrence, played bySimon Ward), was introduced to the man on whom the character of Dickinson was based. Sinden asked him why he had blackmailed Ross, and he replied, "Oh, for the money. I was financially embarrassed at the time and needed to get up to London to see a girlfriend. It was never meant to be a big thing, but a good friend of mine was very close to Terence Rattigan and years later, the silly devil told him the story."^[288]
• Alan Bennett's playForty Years On (1968) includes a satire on Lawrence; known as "Tee Hee Lawrence" because of his high-pitched, girlish giggle. "Clad in the magnificent white silk robes of an Arab prince ... he hoped to pass unnoticed through London. Alas he was mistaken."^[289]
• Lawrence's first year back at Oxford after the War to write was portrayed by Tom Rooney in a play,The Oxford Roof Climbers Rebellion, written byStephen Massicotte (premiered Toronto 2006). The play explores Lawrence's reactions to war, and his friendship with Robert Graves. Urban Stages presented the U.S. premiere in New York City in October 2007; Lawrence was portrayed by actor Dylan Chalfy.^[290]
• His 1922 retreat from public life forms the subject ofHoward Brenton's playLawrence After Arabia, commissioned for a 2016 premiere at theHampstead Theatre to mark the centenary of the outbreak of the Arab Revolt.^[291]

• Lawrence's life was dramatised in the 1935 Australian radio playLawrence of Arabia.^[292]

• Swedishpower metal bandSabaton wrote the song "Seven Pillars Of Wisdom" about Lawrence for their 2019 albumThe Great War.^[293]

• "Nothing is Written", the sixth chapter of the single-player campaign in the 2016first-person shooterBattlefield 1, follows a Bedouin soldier under Lawrence's command.^[294]

• Hashemites, ruling family of Mecca (10th–20th century) and of Jordan since 1921
• Kingdom of Iraq (1932–1958)
• Lawrence of Arabia: The Authorised Biography of T. E. Lawrence by Jeremy Wilson (1989)

Related individuals

• Richard Meinertzhagen (1878–1967), British intelligence officer and ornithologist, on occasion a colleague of Lawrence's
• Rafael de Nogales Méndez (1879–1937), Venezuelan officer who served in the Ottoman Army and was compared to Lawrence
• Suleiman Mousa (1919–2008), Jordanian historian who wrote about Lawrence
• Oskar von Niedermayer (1885–1948), German officer, professor and spy, sometimes referred to as the German Lawrence
• Max von Oppenheim (1860–1946), German-Jewish lawyer, diplomat and archaeologist. Lawrence called his travelogue "the best book on the [Middle East] area I know".
• Wilhelm Wassmuss (1880–1931), German diplomat and spy, known as "Wassmuss of Persia" and compared to Lawrence
• Suzuki Keiji (1897–1967), Japanese intelligence officer, compared to Lawrence

• Anderson, Scott (2013).Lawrence in Arabia: War, deceit, imperial folly and the making of the modern Middle East.Doubleday.ISBN 978-0-385-53292-1 – via Internet Archive (archive.org).
• Armitage, F.A. (1955).The Desert and the Stars: A biography of Lawrence of Arabia (illustrated with photographs ed.). New York:Henry Holt and Company.ISBN 978-0-00-000577-9.{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
• Brown, Malcolm (1988).The Letters of T. E. Lawrence.
• Brown, Malcolm, ed. (2005).Lawrence of Arabia: The selected letters. London: Little Books Ltd.
• Brown, Malcolm; Cave, Julia (1988).A Touch of Genius: The life of T. E. Lawrence. London: J.M. Brent.
• Carchidi, Victoria K. (1987).Creation Out of the Void: The making of a hero, an epic, a world: T. E. Lawrence. University of Pennsylvania – via University Microfilms International, Ann Arbor, MI.
• Ciampaglia, Giuseppe (2010).Quando Lawrence d'Arabia passò per Roma rompendosi l'osso del collo (in Italian). Rome: Strenna dei Romanisti, Roma Amor edit.
• Graves, Richard Perceval (1976).Lawrence of Arabia and His World. Thames & Hudson.ISBN 978-0-500-13054-4 – via Internet Archive (archive.org).
• Hoffman, George Amin (2011).T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) and the M1911. Retrieved11 November 2022.
• Hulsman, John C. (2009).To Begin the World over Again: Lawrence of Arabia from Damascus to Baghdad. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.ISBN 978-0-230-61742-1.
• Hyde, H. Montgomery (1977).Solitary in the Ranks: Lawrence of Arabia as airman and private soldier. London: Constable.ISBN 978-0-09-462070-4.
• James, Lawrence (2008).The Golden Warrior: The Life and Legend of Lawrence of Arabia. New York: Skyhorse Publishing.ISBN 978-1-60239-354-7.
• Lawrence, M.R. (1954).The Home Letters of T. E. Lawrence and his Brothers. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
• Lawrence, T. E. (2003).Seven Pillars of Wisdom: The Complete 1922 Text. Castle Hill Press.ISBN 978-1-873141-39-7.
• Leclerc, C. (1998).Avec T. E. Lawrence en Arabie, La Mission militaire francaise au Hedjaz 1916–1920 (in French). Paris: Harmattan.
• Leigh, Bruce (2014).T. E. Lawrence: Warrior and Scholar. Tattered Flag.ISBN 978-0-9543115-7-5.
• Marriott, Paul; Argent, Yvonne (1998).The Last Days of T. E. Lawrence: A leaf in the wind. The Alpha Press.ISBN 978-1-898595-22-9.
• Meulenjizer, V. (1938).Le Colonel Lawrence, agent de l'Intelligence Service (in French). Brussels: Editions Rex.
• Meyer, Karl E.; Brysac, Shareen Blair (2008).Kingmakers: the Invention of the Modern Middle East. New York / London: W.W. Norton.ISBN 978-0-393-06199-4 – via Internet Archive (archive.org).
• Mousa, S. (1966).T. E. Lawrence: An Arab view. London: Oxford University Press.
• Norman, Andrew (2014).Lawrence of Arabia and Clouds Hill. Halsgrove.ISBN 978-0-85704-247-7.
• Norman, Andrew (2014).T. E. Lawrence: Tormented hero. Fonthill Media.ISBN 978-1-78155-019-9.
• Nutting, A. (1961).Lawrence of Arabia: The Man and the Motive. London: Hollis & Carter.
• Ocampo, V. (1963).338171 T. E. (Lawrence of Arabia). New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc.
• Paris, T.J. (September 1998). "British Middle East policy-making after the First World War: The Lawrentian and Wilsonian Schools".Historical Journal.41 (3):773–793.doi:10.1017/s0018246x98007997.S2CID 161205802.
• Rosen, Jacob (2011)."The Legacy of Lawrence and the New Arab Awakening"(PDF).Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs.V (3). Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 4 March 2016 – via Internet Archive (archive.org).
• Sarindar, François (2010).Lawrence d'Arabie. Thomas Edward, cet inconnu. collection "Comprendre le Moyen-Orient". Paris: Editions L'Harmattan.ISBN 978-2-296-11677-1.
• Sarindar, François (2011). "La vie rêvée de Lawrence d'Arabie: Qantara".Institut du Monde Arabe (in French) (80). Paris: Institut du Monde Arabe:7–9.
• Sattin, Anthony (2014).Young Lawrence: A portrait of the legend of a young man. John Murray.ISBN 978-1-84854-912-8.
• Simpson, Andrew R.B. (2008).Another Life: Lawrence after Arabia. The History Press.ISBN 978-1-86227-464-8.
• Stang, Charles M., ed. (2002).The Waking Dream of T. E. Lawrence: Essays on his life, literature, and legacy. Palgrave Macmillan.
• Stewart, Desmond (1977).T. E. Lawrence. New York: Harper & Row Publishers.ISBN 9780060141233 – via Internet Archive (archive.org).
• Storrs, Ronald (1940).Lawrence of Arabia, Zionism and Palestine – via Internet Archive (archive.org).
• Thomas, L. (2014) [1924].With Lawrence in Arabia. Nabu Press.ISBN 978-1-295-83025-1.

Digital collections

• Works by T. E. Lawrence in eBook form atStandard Ebooks
• Works by T. E. Lawrence atFaded Page (Canada)
• Works by or about T. E. Lawrence at theInternet Archive
• T. E. Lawrence's Original Letters on Palestine Shapell Manuscript Foundation

Physical collections

• T. E. Lawrence's Collection atThe University of Texas at Austin'sHarry Ransom Center
• "Creating History: Lowell Thomas and Lawrence of Arabia" online history exhibit at Clio Visualizing History.
• Europeana Collections 1914–1918 makes 425,000 First World War items from European libraries available online, including manuscripts, photographs and diaries by or relating to Lawrence
• T. E. Lawrence's Personal Manuscripts and Letters

News and analysis

• The Guardian 19 May 1935 – The death of Lawrence of Arabia
• The Legend of Lawrence of Arabia: The Recalcitrant Hero
• T. E. Lawrence: The Enigmatic Lawrence of Arabia article by O'Brien Browne
• Lawrence of Arabia: True and false (an Arab view) by Lucy Ladikoff
• Newspaper clippings about T. E. Lawrence in the20th Century Press Archives of theZBW

Documentaries

• Footage of Lawrence of Arabia with publisher FN Doubleday and at a picnic
• Lawrence of Arabia: The Battle for the Arab World, directed byJames Hawes. PBS Home Video, 21 October 2003. (ASIN B0000BWVND)

Societies

• T. E. Lawrence Studies, built by Lawrence's authorised biographer Jeremy Wilson (no longer maintained)
• The T. E. Lawrence Society