Thomas Edward Lawrence (16 August 1888 – 19 May 1935) was a British Army colonel and former archaeologist who is nicknamed "Lawrence of Arabia" for acting as the liaison and later the secondary leader of the Arab Revolt of World War I from 1916 to 1918 alongside Faisal ibn Hussein.
Biography[]
T.E. Lawrence before joining the Arab Revolt
Lawrence was born in Gwynedd in Wales in the United Kingdom to an Anglo-Irish family. From 1907 to 1910 Lawrence studied at Jesus College in Oxford and in 1909 he traveled 1,000 miles on foot in the Ottoman Empire to explore former crusading castles in the Middle East. In December 1910 Lawrence became an archaeologist and explored the Carchemish ruins and during 1914, at the start of World War I, he surveyed the Negev Desert of the Sinai Peninsula in Anglo-Egypt Sudan. Having studied Arabic and joined the British Army, he was sent as a liaison to Faisal ibn Hussein by General Archibald Murray of the Arab Bureau and helped him to lead the Arab Revolt of 1916.
Lawrence was ordered by Colonel Harry Brighton to make his assessment of Faisal's intentions quickly and then leave, but his knowledge, attitude, and outspokenness gained the Prince's interest and the two became partners in the revolt. After defending Yenbo from an Ottoman attack, Lawrence advised a daring surprise attack on the Ottoman port of Aqaba against Brighton's advice to Faisal, and he crossed the "impassable" Nefud Desert with 50 men to ally with Howeitat chief Auda abu Tayi. Lawrence's ally Sherif Ali burnt his British uniform and gave him Arab robes to wear for his bravery in saving a passed-out Arab soldier who succumbed to fatigue earlier. The alliance of Arabs overran the Turkish garrison, and he was promoted to Major.
Having captured Aqaba, Lawrence headed to Cairo for a new assignment. The new British commander, Edmund Allenby, gave Lawrence money and guns and sent him back to the front to help the Arabs. Lawrence curiously asked if the British had designs on Arabia as a rumor went; pressed, Allenby denied.
From later 1916 to 1917, Lawrence blew up trains and harassed the Turks at every turn in a guerrilla war. American war correspondent Jackson Bentley publicized his exploits, making him a celebrity as "Lawrence of Arabia".
When Lawrence scouted the enemy-held city of Daraa with Sherif Ali, he was taken, along with several Arab residents, to the Turkish Bey. Lawrence was stripped, ogled and prodded. For striking out at the Bey, he was severely flogged, and possibly raped. He was then thrown out into the street. It was an emotional turning point for Lawrence. He was so traumatized by the experience that he abandoned all of his exploits, going from having proclaimed himself almost a god, to insisting he was merely a man. He attempted to return to the British forces and swear off the desert, but he never fit in there. In Jerusalem, Allenby urged him to support his "big push" on Damascus, but Lawrence was a changed, tormented man, unwilling to return. After Allenby insisted that Lawrence had a destiny, he finally relented. Lawrence naively believed that the warriors would come for him rather than for money.
He recruited an army, mainly killers, mercenaries, and cutthroats motivated by money, rather than the Arab cause. They saw a column of retreating Turkish soldiers who had just slaughtered the people of the village of Tafas. One of Lawrence's men from the village demanded, "No prisoners!" When Lawrence hesitated, the man charged the Turks alone and is killed. Lawrence took up the dead man's cry, resulting in a massacre in which Lawrence himself fully participated, with disturbing relish. Afterward, he realized the horrible consequences of what he had done.
His men then took Damascus ahead of Allenby's forces. The Arabs set up a council to administer the city, but they were desert tribesmen, ill-suited for such a task. The various tribes argued amongst themselves and in spite of Lawrence's insistence, could not unite against the British, who in the end took the city back under their bureaucracy. Unable to maintain the utilities and bickering constantly with each other, they soon abandoned most of the city to the British. Promoted to colonel and immediately ordered home, his usefulness at an end to both Faisal and the British diplomats, a dejected Lawrence was driven away in a staff car.
In the aftermath of the war, his dreams of an independent Arabia were crushed after the Battle of Maysalun in 1920 when the French conquered Syria from the Arab Kingdom of Syria, formed by the Arab rebels. He joined the RAF under an alias but was ejected when his identity was discovered, and in 1925 he had a short spell in the tank corps. He rejoined the RAF and later was positioned in a remote Indian outpost because of an upsurge of popularity after publishing "Seven Pillars of Wisdom" and other autobiographies about his role in the Arab Revolt.
In 1935, Lawrence died in a motorcycle accident. When he saw two boys ahead of him on bicycles, a crash was imminent, so Lawrence swerved off of the road and was critically injured, dying six days later at the age of 46.