- Also known as
-
Thomas Edward Lawrence
-
primary name: Lawrence, Thomas Edward
-
other name: Lawrence of Arabia
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other name: Shaw, Thomas Edward
- Details
- individual; military/naval; author/poet; British; Male
- Life dates
- 1888-1935
- Biography
- Born in Wales in 1888; died May 1935. Author of 'The Seven Pillars of Wisdom' (abridged as 'Revolt in the Desert'), 'The Mint', etc; after writing his undergraduate thesis on Crusader castles, he returned to the Middle East to excavate under the direction of D.G. Hogarth (q.v.) and C.L. Woolley (q.v.) at Carchemish, during which time this British Museum expedition also salvaged finds from ancient cemeteries in the vicinity, including the site of Deve hüyük. He later joined Woolley on an intelligence-gathering survey of Sinai in 1914, an expedition conducted under the auspices of the Palestine Exploration Fund. Son of Mrs S Lawrence (q.v.). Adopted the name Thomas Edward Shaw when he served in the RAF and was trying to "disappear" from public attention. Some archive relating to Lawrence is held as part of the Bertram Thomas Papers in the University of Cambridge.
- Bibliography
- J. Wilson, 'T.E. Lawrence, Lawrence of Arabia', catalogue of the exhibition held at the National Portrait Gallery, London, 9/12/88-12/3/89; Jeremy Wilson, 'Lawrence of Arabia, a pocket biography', Stroud: Sutton, 1997; Nicole Chevalier, 'La recherche archéologique française au moyen-orient 1842-1947', Paris: Editions Recherche sur les Civilisations, 2002, p. 226.
