Lawrence, Thomas Edward (Lawrence of Arabia)

(1888–1935)

   British officer in the Arab revolt. Lawrence was identified both with the Arab cause and with Zionism, and believed that the two national movements should co-operate. Before World War I Lawrence had become familiar with the Sinai Desert, the Negev and southern Jordan, as an archaeologist and map-surveyor. In 1916 the British Arab Bureau in Cairo sent him to Arabia, with the rank of colonel, to help foment the Arab revolt against the Turks. His monumental account of the campaign, The Seven Pillars of Wisdom (1926), was hailed as a literary masterpiece, though later critics doubted its veracity. Lawrence published a shorter version, Revolt in the Desert (1927). In 1918 Lawrence took part in the historic meeting between Dr WEIZMANN and Emir FEISAL near Amman, and acted as interpreter. At the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, Lawrence again acted as an intermediary between the two leaders, who signed an agreement of co-operation and friendship. Feisal’s famous letter to the American Zionist leader, Felix FRANKFURTER, was in Lawrence’s handwriting.

   After the war, Lawrence disappeared from view, and served as a mechanic in the RAF, under the name of T.E.Shaw. From time to time, he visited the Weizmann home in London, and continued to maintain that the Jewish National Home could do a great deal to raise the standards of the surrounding Arab countries. Lawrence was killed in a road accident while speeding on his motor- cycle.