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The No. 110 T. E. LAWRENCE SOCIETY Spring 2015 Newsletter

Château Tonquédec, Brittany, visited by Lawrence in 1906

T. E. Lawrence and friend “Scroggs” Beeson cycled round Brittany in 1906. This tour is well documented, and Society member Raymond Van Haelst recently followed the route of their travels. He shares his discoveries and photographs, alongside Lawrence’s own writings. Article on page 9. TE Lawrence Newsletter 110:Layout 1 11/3/15 07:51 Page 2

Contents Society News...... 3 Dorset Event, Tour 2016 and AGM...... 4 London Group Report...... 5 Forthcoming N. England Tour ...... 7 TEL 1906 Cycling Tour Revisited ...... 9 Late News...... 15 Book Review and news ...... 16 Latest news from Carchemish dig ...... 18 Two Polstead Road, Oxford ...... 21 Diary Dates ...... 21 “Archaeology of Lawrence of Arabia” ...... 22 Obituary: Nicholas Birnie ...... 23 Resource Materials ...... 23 News and Updates ...... 24

Newsletter Contributions

All contributions are welcome, although we cannot guarantee to use them. If they are to be included in the next issue, either send by post to TELS Newsletter at the address below to arrive by 15th May 2015, or e-mail to: [email protected] We also like to include photographs of members’ activities; either post original prints with an S.A.E. if you would like them returned, or send full resolution digital photographs by e-mail attachment. Please note that all contributions are subject to editorial amendment.

The T. E. Lawrence Society Newsletter Editor: Harriet Coates ISSN 0950 950 X is published by: The T.E. Lawrence Society, P.O. Box 728, Oxford OX2 9ZJ (Registered Charity no. 297940) Copyright © 2015 The T.E. Lawrence Society and contributors. The views expressed by contributors are their own and not necessarily those of the T.E. Lawrence Society.

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Your Committee News Your Society committee has been hard at work since the AGM in September. We’re a great team and are always ready to welcome new colleagues, so feel invited to participate! Chairman Philip Neale leads the team and is already booking speakers for the next Symposium in September 2016. Membership Secretary Louise Walker has been checking that everyone’s subscriptions are up to date and that new members are made to feel very welcome – especially one who joined on Christmas Day! We are a worldwide organisation, with many members abroad from as far away as Japan and Alaska. Don’t forget to encourage friends and family to join us - membership is great value, and it’s easy to pay by cheque or via our website with Paypal. Alan Payne is our Vice Chairman and Journal Editor – find out more about him with his brief biography: One of the great events in my childhood was the opening of a dedicated Children’s Library in my home town in Derbyshire. It was there that I found and devoured “The True Book of Lawrence of Arabia”. Throughout my teens I read several biographies (I remember Ocampo). Fortunately I did not attempt the Seven Pillars until I was 21 (and recovering from a motorcycle accident). It was the splendour of the language and what I think is poetry in prose which entranced me. In the meantime I had to earn a living as a Planning Officer (now a Consultant) and also wander round the mountains of Europe and Nepal - and save the odd historic building. Just for the record, my interest in Brough Superior motorcycles has nothing to do with my interest in T.E. Lawrence. It wasn’t until the 2008 Symposium when I gave a talk on them, that I made the Alan Payne connection. Many thanks to Alison Jolley, long-time Society member and excellent speaker at the 2014 Symposium, for editing the previous newsletter. Alison has stepped down from this editorship; she continues to support the society by updating our popular Facebook page, and welcomes members’ contributions and comments. Subscriptions, due 1st April annually. If you’re unable to send a UK cheque then our Paypal facility is a good alternative. Use it to pay for events, subscriptions and donations; just click the link on our website home page, or follow “Membership”. Cheques can be posted to The T.E. Lawrence Society, P.O. Box 728, Oxford OX2 9ZJ, along with an explanatory note. Don’t forget to Gift Aid your donation.

Our Newsletter Harriet Coates, Secretary, is guest editor of this issue. Would you like to share in the Society’s work by joining our Editorial Team? Editorship provides plenty of fascinating reading and conversations with interesting people, as well as bringing together much recent research and Lawrence news. Contact Harriet Coates NOW at [email protected] for further information and to offer your expertise.

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Dorset – Special Lawrence Event 11th – 17th May 2015 To commemorate the 80th anniversary of T E Lawrence’s death and to celebrate his life, the National Trust will be running ‘Lawrence Week’ from 11th – 17th May. Events and activities will include talks by Alan Payne, Alison Jolley and Roger Holehouse; a guided walk; Tim Laycock at Clouds Hill performing readings and music associated with Lawrence and his friends; a family-orientated brass rubbing activity and archaeology display at Clouds Hill on the weekend of 16th and 17th May; a trail for children around the grounds of Clouds Hill during open days (Wednesday – Sunday). See the National Trust Clouds Hill website for details.

Society Trip to Jordan, April 2016 The Society is planning a 7-10 day trip to Jordan in April 2016, working in conjunction with James Dyer and Sam McConnell (both Fellows of the Royal Geographical Society). You may recall James and Sam from last year’s Symposium, when they supported the cadets in their trek in Jordan. The plan is to stay at three camps out in the desert, at Lawrence-related locations near Maan, Mudawwara and Wadi Rum, where there will be optional day walks to interesting sites. We will be fully supported by the Bedouin and transported between the camps. We will also visit Aqaba, Petra and Amman, where hotel accommodation will be used. The cost for all accommodation, meals and transport in Jordan is predicted to be about £900 - £1100. This does not include flights to Amman. To register your interest for this exciting opportunity, please e mail [email protected] 2015 Annual General Meeting at Shuttleworth Aerodrome – Saturday 12th September 2015 You are warmly invited to participate in the Society’s Annual General Meeting, to be held on the afternoon of Saturday 12th September. Our venue will be the world- famous Shuttleworth Veteran Aeroplane Society (SVAS) aerodrome located at Old Warden, Bedfordshire, just off the A1 near Biggleswade. Come to meet the Committee and other members and explore this fascinating venue. The proposed programme will be: 10.00 – 12.30 Arrival, welcome and guided visit of the SVAS collection (Cost £10pp) 12.30 – 14.00 Buffet Lunch (costs to be confirmed) 14.00 – 15.30 Annual General Meeting 15.30 – 17.00 Afternoon Tea, with Guest Speaker (to be arranged) For more information about the Shuttleworth Veteran Aeroplane Society collection and directions to the site please see www.visiteastofengland.com/Biggleswade-The- Shuttleworth-Collection/details/?dms=3&venue=0223773

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London Group Report 14 members attended an afternoon of talks on 30th August 2014 at Friends House, Euston. Ian Heritage and Véronique Thevoz – Great Project Society members Ian Heritage and Véronique Thevoz have been on a few of the Great Arab Revolt Project (GARP) digs over the last 9 years. The project mainly investigated conflict areas in Jordan close to stations on the Hejaz railway between Ma’an and Mudowarra, but the groups also visited Abu el Lissan and Guweira. Ian’s talk began with the Ma’an area, saying how difficult it was to work in populated areas due to the attention caused, particularly from schoolboys. Aerial/satellite images were useful for revealing entrenched lines, such as the Turkish line on the Hill of the Birds. South of Ma’an at Aqabat Hajazia station a rudimentary steel hand grenade had been found, marked with the Turkish crescent. A similar one was presented to the GARP team at Mudowarra by a Jordanian boy – thankfully without its fuse and explosive filling! Rings of stones, occasionally with the remains of a wooden centre peg, were the signs of tented encampments. Ian ended with some details of Tooth Hill camp, near Tell Sham station, the finding of which had been widely reported in the press earlier in the year. Remains of gin bottles, ammunition, ration tins and a spark plug were among the items found. Véronique, a keen follower of Prince Feisal, was pleased that the GARP team had found remains of the Arab army’s camp at Wuheida consisting of stone lines and enclosures. In the course of searching for contemporary photographs Véronique had discovered a few websites, including one with coloured photographs taken in Akaba, Guweira, etc. in February and March 1918: http://albert-kahn.hauts-de- seine.net/archives-de-la-planete/mappemonde/asie/jordanie/ Heather Walker – James Elroy Flecker Heather Walker, also a member, wrote a significant biography of James Elroy Flecker (1884-1915) in 2006 entitled Roses and Rain. Lawrence met Flecker in Beiruit in 1911 when Lawrence was travelling home from Carchemish and where Flecker was Vice- Consul. Heather outlined Flecker’s life starting at Oxford, where he won a scholarship to Trinity College. He joined the Levant Consular Service in 1908 and worked first in Constantinople. Lawrence visited Flecker and his wife Hellé at Areya in the summer of 1912, which was when the well-known photographs of Flecker in Arab dress were taken by Lawrence. Due to poor health, Flecker had to leave the Levant for Switzerland but he and Lawrence continued to exchange letters until Flecker died of consumption in 1915. It is interesting to debate whether either man influenced the other’s poetry or prose. At least one Lawrence biographer credited Flecker as being the chief influence on Lawrence’s determination to be a writer. Heather said she was pleased to see in a recent biography (Young Lawrence by Anthony Sattin) that there were more references and quotations from Flecker than in previous biographies of TEL. Heather was therefore hopeful that the Lawrence/Flecker friendship is now regarded as more important. The T.E. Lawrence Society Newsletter No. 110 5 TE Lawrence Newsletter 110:Layout 1 11/3/15 07:51 Page 6

Nick Lynch – Seven Pillars of Wisdom, Illustrated In 1992, Nick made a solo trip to Jordan with Seven Pillars of Wisdom packed in his luggage. He showed slides from that journey in approximate chronological order of Lawrence’s journeys in Jordan starting in Guweira and travelling down the Wadi Itm via Abu el Lissan to Akaba. Nick and Ian Heritage compared notes about the changes in the area over 20 years and observed that not much had changed. Travelling via Wadi Rum to Azrak, Nick showed the castle where Lawrence had spent the winter of 1917. Since 1992 the road in front of the castle has been widened. It is somewhat prophetic that in 1917 Lawrence was worried about the effect that introducing armoured cars would have upon the ‘remoteness of this hidden legendary place’ (SPoW, p576). Slides were then shown of Shobek and Tafileh, which followed the route of the January 1918 push north. Shobek is rarely visited due to the grandeur of Petra nearby. It was where Lawrence stayed with Sherif Abd el Main in a smoky room in the castle and was given spiced tea and mutton boiled in raisins and butter (SPoW, p507). At Tafileh, the attentions of schoolboys (them again!) prevented a leisurely appreciation by Nick of the site of Lawrence’s set battle of February 1918. The talk finished with the desert castles of Kharaneh and Amrah which Lawrence had seen whilst on a journey to Azrak in August 1918 with Major Robin Buxton and the Camel Corps. The castles have been maintained very well since then and it is still possible to imagine Lawrence and Buxton at Amrah lying in the ‘cool dusk of its hall…puzzling out the worn frescoes of the wall with more laughter than moral profit.’ (SPoW p591). LUNCH MEETING on 31 January 2015 Ten members of the London Group met for lunch at Perdoni’s restaurant in London. Among the items of news discussed was the Daily Telegraph article on the new film about Gertrude Bell, starring Nicole Kidman as Bell. Robert Pattinson will appear as T E Lawrence. Damian Lewis will star as Maj Charles Doughty-Wylie, with whom Bell is said to have had an unconsummated affair. Doughty-Wylie later won a posthumous VC at Gallipoli. The film is written and directed by Werner Herzog. VISITS A visit has been arranged to The RAF Museum, Hendon to see their archives and have a tour of the museum, focusing on the period when Lawrence served in the RAF. The visit is arranged for Tuesday March 24th. The details of the day are still to be finalised but the plan is to meet at the Museum (Grahame Park Way, Hendon, London, NW9 5LL) at 10.30, have lunch at the Museum and finish about 3pm. The theme for the day will be (unsurprisingly) Lawrence in the RAF. The group size is limited to 12 people but there are still a few places available. Saturday 20th June – ‘Away visit’. Since we have had one ‘home’ visit to Hendon, an ‘away’ visit was proposed, either to Southampton or to the Welsh Castles. Some of us have visited these places before but that was twenty years ago, so a re-visit is due. The June date avoids a clash with the Society’s October trip to Cranwell and Bridlington. Details of our visit to be decided in due course. All welcome to join us, but please let Nick Lynch know in advance. For further details of events telephone 01732 366068, write to 6 Hazel Shaw, Tonbridge, Kent, TN10 3QE or e-mail [email protected]

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‘T. E. LAWRENCE IN LINCOLNSHIRE & YORKSHIRE – 2015’

T E LAWRENCE SOCIETY EVENT MONDAY 12th, TUESDAY 13th & WEDNESDAY 14th OCTOBER 2015 The historic city of York will be our base for this unique trip over three nights Preliminary schedule: Monday 12th: Arrive in York by train or your own transport & check-in to your selected accommodation. Take your time to explore York and then have a group meal together in the evening. Tuesday 13th: A visit to Cranwell RAF Cadet College, where Lawrence served, for a private tour. An early start of 7:30am will be required for the journey from York to Cranwell by mini-bus. Our appointment at Cranwell is 9:45am. Cranwell expect a smart casual dress code ie no trainers or jeans. Cranwell cannot guarantee our appointment at this time because any RAF event will take precedence. Afterwards there may be time to visit the Aviation Heritage Museum at nearby East Kirkby. Tel: 01790 763207 In the afternoon visit Lincoln where Lawrence often stayed during his Cranwell days. We can visit Brown’s pie shop where Lawrence lodged and perhaps sample their fare. There is a blue plaque at the shop. Return to York for a free evening. Wednesday 14th: Set off at approx. 9:30am in the mini-bus to visit Bridlington. The last few weeks of Lawrence’s service career were spent working on RAF boats at Bridlington. Our guide in Bridlington will be distinguished local historian Mike Wilson. Thursday 15th: Disperse home. Please note that participants will be responsible for booking their own accommodation in York, ideally at one of the recommended hotels which will be given to enquirers. Meals and insurance are also the responsibility of participants. At this stage we are planning on hiring a 16 seat mini-bus for the transport from York to Cranwell and Bridlington. We hope to fill the mini-bus. Cost of hire and petrol will be worked out later and distributed amongst those using the mini-bus. Cost likely to be about £25 per person. Currently at time of writing there are 14 places still available. The payment for the mini-bus will be expected in advance and promptly. Places on the mini-bus will be on a first come first served basis.

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Register your interest now in taking part in this unique event and in booking a mini-bus place. Contact Harriet Coates by email on [email protected] or send the form below to her by post at The T.E. Lawrence Society, PO Box 728, Oxford OX2 9ZJ.

Preliminary tour booking including MINI-BUS travel:

Number in party = 1 or 2 - please select

Name: Name:

Address: Address:

Home Tel: Home Tel:

Mobile: Mobile:

Email: Email:

Return to: Harriet Coates, The T E Lawrence Society, PO Box 728, Oxford OX2 9ZJ

Please note: no responsibility can be accepted by the T E Lawrence Society in the event of any loss, damage or injury to persons participating in this event.

Event co-ordinator: Andrew Wright Tel: 01565 734677 Email: [email protected]

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48 Hours in the company of T.E. Lawrence and “Scroggs” Beeson: 12th, 13th and 14th August 1906 Raymond Van Haelst

T.E. Lawrence’s 1906 trip to Brittany lasted for almost one month (from August 4th till September 2nd). Most of the time he stayed in Dinard with his old friends the Chaignons (whom he knew from the time he and his parents lived in Brittany from December 1891 to April 1894). Between the 9th and the 16th of August 1906, Lawrence left Dinard for an eight day bicycle trip over the north-west coast of Brittany accompanied by his schoolfriend “Scroggs” Beeson. It was Lawrence’s first tour in France. As Peter Hendrick mentioned in his article for the Society Newsletter no. 100 (page 8), this 1906 tour in Brittany has received little attention. That is strange as Lawrence himself provided us with a lot of information about it through letters to his family. It made me wonder how well I could reconstruct this tour today from what Lawrence wrote 108 years ago, and what I could see and find out. I tried to bring 48 hours to life again, namely 12, 13 and 14 August 1906. 13th August 1906 Lawrence and Beeson arrived in the little coastal town of Paimpol (2800 inhabitants) on Saturday, August 11th, and stayed for two nights at the Hôtel Continental. An old postcard from the beginning of the 20th Century showed that this hotel was located in the south corner of the Place du Martrai. The hotel itself has disappeared but the building survives in remarkable condition and still looks very much the same as in 1906. I even found a view taken from the hotel. Probably this Paimpol: view from the hotel was the view the boys had when where the boys slept looking out of their window.

Paimpol: Hôtel Continental (± 1900) Paimpol: today

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The evening before Lawrence and Beeson left Paimpol (August 12th) a fire broke out in the town. Lawrence described the panic among the citizens as follows: “...we were defeated by the most awful row I ever heard. Everyone yelled! The people in the bed-room next to us began to knock down chairs and scream... Firemen rushed about dragging engines and yelling, no one kept cool, and the result was that the fire burnt furiously without anyone doing anything but dance and rave deliriously. I never saw such an instance of incapacity.” It may be that Lawrence and his friend were the only two to keep their heads that evening! The next morning as the two boys prepared to leave Paimpol they were presented by an unpleasant bill, much larger than they had expected. “The result is that our expenditure is 8/- per day instead of 6/- up to the present”, Lawrence told his mother. Anyway, on the 13th of August they made their way west to Lannion, a distance of 35 km. The first 5 km they undoubtedly followed route D787. Today this rather small road still has some resemblance to the old days. Once they crossed the river Trieux, they took route D786 which is now a broad road frequented by many trucks. On the way Lawrence had trouble with his back brake wire and had to use his foot against the wheel as a temporary brake. It’s known that Lawrence was an experienced and strong cyclist. But what about Beeson? According to Lawrence there can be little doubt about it. To his mother he wrote: “Scroggs was such an ass on the tour: he flatly refused to believe he had speed-legs, and then one day he rode 8 miles in half an hour.” They reached the historic town of Tréguier before noon. The lunch they took here brought another financial disappointment. “We were robbed shamefully”, T.E. complained to his mother. It may have spoiled the young Lawrence’s meal, but it certainly didn’t spoil Beeson’s as he found it delightful. In Tréguier they visited the beautiful Gothic cathedral. “Father would have enjoyed the Cathedral of Tréguier”, he wrote to his mother, “it was magnificent”. To his father he wrote: “Tréguier Cathedral was a fine building nearly as fine as Merton Chapel, but it is the best church in the Côte du Nord”. He himself was most impressed with the cloister, “...the best cloister I have ever seen”. I can only agree with Lawrence’s opinion. In 2014, the cloister has lost nothing of its beauty. It is well preserved and in good shape. Although the Market Place around the Cathedral holds several restored half-timbered houses, dated from the 15th to 18th Centuries, it doesn’t breathe the atmosphere of the early 20th Century anymore, spoiled as it is by modern additions. Tréguier: cloister After their visit to the Cathedral the boys most probably left Tréguier through the beautiful gate tower, passed the former episcopal palace (today’s town hall) and proceeded to Lannion again following the D786. In his letter to his mother he described the scenery as follows: “The foliage and flora here are semi-tropical, plants 10 The T.E. Lawrence Society Newsletter No. 110 TE Lawrence Newsletter 110:Layout 1 11/3/15 07:51 Page 11

I have never seen before flourish in the open air. It is a quite common sight to see old women spinning in their cottage doorways”. The old women have disappeared, and of the semi-tropical plants I saw very little. It’s clear that the new-built broad D786 disturbed the whole landscape. Too late I discovered that parts of the old road taken by Lawrence and “Scroggs” Beeson still exist. These narrow roads come closer to the few old houses left and right from the D786, but all in all, I think there is little left from the time the two boys passed here. On their way to Lannion Lawrence finally found a mécanicien who helped him repair his broken back wire. The repair work took two hours because there was a lot of soldering to do. So it must have been late afternoon when they entered the town of Lannion by the Rue de Tréguier. Somewhere in the middle of this street I spotted the eldest café of the town: “Cafe de France”. The lady barkeeper (well aged) assured me that the café existed during World War I. There is a good chance that Lawrence and “Scroggs” Beeson spotted it too, 108 years ago. Rue de Tréguier comes out on the Place du Centre in a town which happily has kept its age-long canvas of small streets and squares. The two travellers still had time to pay a visit to the Eglise St.-Jean- du-Baly, coming from Rue de Tréguier on the opposite end of Place du Centre. Lannion: Eglise St.-Jean-du-Baly “At this place”, he wrote home, “there is a church with 5 naves, and the thickest circular pillar I have ever seen. It contains the stairs of the rood-loft, and is gigantic.” Strangely enough he didn’t visit the most interesting and fascinating church of Lannion: Eglise de Brélévenez. To reach this church, situated on a hill, one has to climb 142 old medieval steps. The view is impressive and the church well worth a visit. The oldest parts are Roman, built by the Templar Knights in the 12th Century. Later the church was enlarged with Gothic elements. We can only guess why Lawrence didn’t go to see the Eglise de Brélévenez. Was there no time left? Was he unaware of its existence? Lannion: Eglise de Brélévenez

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Or had he simply less interest for Roman churches? He mentions something in that direction in a letter to his father: “...I have seen nearly all the best things in the province, speaking of Gothic work. There are interesting Roman and Prehistoric articles which I know nothing of.” The boys stayed for one night at the Hôtel de France. Lannion: Hôtel de France, on the right side (± 1910) Again, an old postcard from around 1910 led me to the right location. A five minutes walk from the Place du Centre brought me to the banks of the River Léguer and the Pont St.-Anne. The building of the former hotel (now a bank) still exists. Moreover when I compare the old postcard with the building as it looks today, I see little difference. While Lawrence was writing to his mother from one of these Lannion: today rooms he would see the cloister on the opposite side of the river. Also of this view I was able to find a representative postcard from about 100 years ago. It’s interesting to see that also this view hasn’t changed much in a century! So, with the boys going to sleep here my first day in their bicycling steps ended. August 14th 1906 This day must have been a highpoint for the two boys on their tour through Brittany. They put only one Lannion: formerly cloister as it looks today

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visit on their programme: Château Tonquédec. The ruins of this medieval castle interested Lawrence very much, and also presumably Beeson, who had aspirations for an archaelogical career at that time. Most probably they first did a little shopping for their lunch (price 4 dimes) but I can imagine that they left Lannion soon Lannion: view from Hôtel de France at the cloister on the opposite after that as they were side of the river anxious to see the castle. The weather was fine: “It was a beautiful day”, Lawrence noted. Leaving Lannion by the east, their route would have taken them along Boulevard Louis Guilloux and Route de Guingamp to the junction at Buhulien where they picked up the D31 southward. This rather narrow road swings through pastures and fields with few houses or farms. Except the fact that it has been asphalted, the experience of riding here today must be very much the same as at the beginning of the 20th Century. Left and right on the road I spotted a few calvaries. The Breton calvary distinguished itself from a simple crucifix cross by the inclusion of three- dimensional figures. These wayside calvaries, dated from centuries ago, were erected at the junction of routes and tracks. I didn’t find one letter in which Lawrence mentions these typical Breton religious symbols. Probably he wasn’t impressed at all, although he must have seen Breton calvary several of them. Tonquédec means the well-guarded place. “Located on a rocky outcrop, the castle is surrounded by hills on all sides and the country near is thickly wooded” is how Lawrence described the location of the castle in 1906 and that’s still the outlook I had when I neared the place. Since 1881 the castle has been in the possession of the family of Rougé. In the 1850’s, the ruins were consolidated and made watertight, and there

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had been a few subsequent restorations. In his study Lawrence concentrated little on campaigns or battles in general, as his main interest lay in the architecture of the buildings. In his bag he had a copy of Viollet-le-duc’s “Dictionnaire Raisonnée” which he certainly used during his visit. Not having a camera with them, Beeson made sketches while Lawrence used at least three sheets of paper, probably more, to describe everything he saw and discovered. His description is still accurate and was a useful guide to me (much more than the sheet of paper I received together with my ticket!), because Lawrence described it in a logical walking order. In one of the small openings of the gateway the boys ate their lunch: bread, butter and milk. “Nothing had to be killed to feed us”, Lawrence wrote humorously. I suppose they sat down at the highest embrasure from where they would have a nice view over the valley. Meanwhile they were entertained by a couple of squirrels. He made special mention of it for his 6 year old brother Arnold: “Tell Arnie I saw a brown squirrel run up the wall... Château Tonquédec the squirrels about here are very large and carry their tails like the foxes do theirs straight out behind.” Lawrence and Beeson examined the place for four hours and “had serious thoughts of staying the night” but they finally jumped on their bikes and rode on. From the castle they first passed the village of Tonquédec, in 1906 a small village of 1680 inhabitants (today with only 1100). I found a silent place with almost no shops, cafés or people on the street, looking as if the world had forgotten its existence. No reason for Lawrence and his friend to make a stop here. Further on their road (D31 and D30) they went through Kernalégan and Pluzunet before they entered the town of Bégard which contains some megalithic stones, remains from the neolithic Pluzunet (end of 19th Century) period, but very little of

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medieval interest. So also here they must have pursued their way without a stop. From Lannion to Bégard I had been able to follow the old roads the boys took and to enjoy the same experience as they had during their ride. From Bégard, however, old roads have disappeared and new ones constructed. Lawrence never gives a hint about the road they followed from Bégard, so I decided to make it easy for myself and took the motorway D767 to Guingamp where the boys ended their day trip. In Baedeker’s guide of 1906 Guingamp is noted for its church of Notre Dame de Bon Secours (13th-16th Century) and its fountain, “La Plomée”, at the Place du Centre. The charming side of Guingamp is completely situated around this Place du Centre. I saw several restored half-timbered houses and the fountain is quite a curiosity. The church, a mix of Gothic and Renaissance, holds very beautiful stained glass windows. Lawrence however described Guingamp as an “uninteresting place”; not really a surprise for a 17 year old student with a strong focus on medieval castles. In the Rue Saint Nicolas the young men booked a room for one night at the Hôtel de Commerce. Once again Lawrence set himself the task of writing a letter home. In this period of his life Lawrence comes out as very family oriented. In one week he wrote letters to his mother (three), father and his brothers Bob and Will. He also paid special attention to young Arnold. The next day they would ride to Erquy and further on to Dinard. But for me, my little adventure came to an end in Guingamp and I was sorry to leave the boys behind me here. It had been an exciting Guingamp: Hôtel de Commerce 48 hours. The author thanks Phil O’Brien for his assistance. Sources: The Home Letters of T.E. Lawrence and his Brothers T.E. Lawrence by his Friends Baedeker’s Guide to Northern France 1906 Late News We are saddened to hear of the recent death of one of our most prolific supporters, Paul Helfer. Paul, who lived in New York, was a regular and enthusiastic speaker at Society Symposia. He was an attorney specializing in literary property and copyright law and also an enthusiastic collector. His T.E. Lawrence collection was exhibited at the Beinecke Library at Yale University and the John Hay Library at Brown University. Paul will be greatly missed.

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Book Review

Bruce Leigh Lawrence: Warrior and Scholar (Tattered Flag £12.99) This slim, thoughtful volume by a Society member seeks to return us to the real man behind the exploits. As the blurb on its back slightly questionably maintains: “To date, nobody has gone in search of the mind of the man himself, of his formation and his deep beliefs”. Consequently, you will not find much here about the Arab Revolt, or Middle Eastern geo-politics, or technical data on speed boats or motorcycles. We home in instead on the books Lawrence read, the philosophies he imbibed, the ideas and ideals that governed him – on those inner entities, in fact, that helped to form his extraordinary mind. It is a refreshingly inward and erudite appraisal. An early chapter deals with Lawrence’s immersion in the chivalric tradition. Leigh has studied the medieval chivalric manuals that Lawrence will have conned in his youth – including those by Ramon Lull and Geoffroi de Charny, as well as such courtly tales as the Chanson de Roland and Le Petit Jehan de Saintre – and he elucidates how they helped shape Lawrence’s outlook and behaviour. He ponders why Lawrence should have read Maurice Hewlett’s stodgy Richard Yea and Nay (1900) nine times and have considered it “a masterpiece”. (It is a curious fact that many of Lawrence’s favourite texts, including those by Malory, Spenser, Doughty, and Morris, are hard going, verging on unreadable. Another curious fact, as Leigh points out, is that John Pendlebury, the so-called “Cretan Lawrence”, also adored the Hewlett.) M.D.Allen, in The Medievalism of Lawrence of Arabia (1991), has already discussed this chivalric aspect of Lawrence a good deal more thoroughly and illuminatingly, I feel: he is certainly one previous scholar who has “gone in search of the mind of the man”. But Leigh goes on to pick up the hint thrown out in a footnote of Allen’s, that “there is a book to be written on The Classicism of Lawrence of Arabia”, and several of his subsequent chapters interestingly examine the influence of such ancient Greeks as Xenophon, Lucian, and Apollonius of Tyana, as well as such Cynics and Stoics as Diogenes and Epictetus – a discussion that, so far as I know, is new, even if it does not yet fully meet Allen’s challenge. In the long run, Stoicism and Spartanism probably influenced Lawrence more than the Christianity he imbibed under his mother’s moralising influence. This leads to useful sections dealing with Lawrence’s attitude to food and drink, and sex and pain, and with the “personal” chapter (CIII) of Seven Pillars. Facts and figures are not always reliable (on one page he gives Marcus Aurelius’s dates as “161-80 B.C.”; on another Christian monasteries are said to have been founded in “A.D.4”), while many of the quotations, printed in rather faint italic type, required the employment of a magnifier. (The same applies to the facsimile catalogue of books at Clouds Hill, printed as an appendix, which can more conveniently be perused in T. E. Lawrence by his Friends.) But the book is as much a polemic as a biographical study, as is clear from the final Envoi. Here, Leigh derides our current society as “the silliest, dirtiest civilisation there has ever been”, one which “lurches towards the abyss”, and claims “the paper boat of our unearnt prosperity grows soggy”. We need to return, he argues, to the virtues and

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values that motivated Lawrence, to self-restraint, disciplined training, stoicism and askesis (strict self-control). In place of the kind of austerity our present political leaders impose on us, Lawrence offers “true austerity. The great lessness. The simplicity in material things. How to prepare mind and body, like an athlete, for the fight.” Graham Chainey

Book News

New Books These details are provided for information and are not endorsements or recommendations Ray Bishop: Romans, Knights, Doughboys: Lingering Memories in a European Landscape Chapter Two describes Lawrence’s remarkable bicycle tour of France in 1908 during which he studied châteaux forts. Supplementary notes by the author on the second chapter appeared in T E Lawrence Society Newsletters No. 94, 102 and 107. Its four chapters are based upon work on www.raybishophistory.co.uk Available as eBook from Amazon.co.uk, January 2015, price £3.50; 221 pages, illustrated; free sample viewing with summary of contents, Kindle edition. Seven Pillars Of Wisdom A two-volume paperback edition of The Oxford Text of 1922 has recently been published by Castle Hill Press. Editors J. and N. Wilson, price £28.50 plus P & P.

Books For Sale A collection of books by and about T. E. Lawrence, available as one lot. For details, contact Steve Wilson, tel. 01235 772418, [email protected]

We welcome the following new members

Mr P Chadwick, Australia Mr J Dyer, Kent Mr J Nitz, Australia Mr C Jessep, Somerset Mr D Amlin, USA Ms L O’Regan, London Ms Christiane Autmans, Belgium Mr A Owen, London Ms Kirsty Bain, Australia Mr J Johnson-Allen, Norfolk Mr T Gnapp, Alberta Mr M Rich, Buckinghamshire Mr J McCarthy, Switzerland Ms A Gale, Dorset Mr M Yoshitake, Japan Dr P Verow, Yorkshire Mr P Burt, Hampshire Mr S Woods, Wiltshire

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T. E. Lawrence at Karkemish, 1911-1914: results of the Turco-Italian 2011-2014 excavations in the expedition house Silvia Di Cristina and Nicolò Marchetti (Alma Mater Studiorum – University of Bologna)

Quoted in several ancient Near Eastern sources from the 3rd to the 1st Millennium BC, including the Bible (Jeremiah 46:2) for the battle that took place there in 605 B.C. between the Assyrian and Egyptian armies against the Babylonians, the capital city of Karkemish remained forgotten in the dusts of time until its identification in the hill and ruins near the village of Jerablus put forward by the famous Assyriologist George Smith in 1876. This awakened the interest of the British Museum, which from that moment on patronized a series of researches at the site with the permit granted from the Ottoman State; first and episodically in the years 1878-1881 and then with the 1911-1914 and 1920 systematic excavations conducted by some of the most prominent scholars of our time. David George Hogarth, appointed by the Museum as scientific director of the 1911 campaign, chose among his assistants a young scholar whom he knew since 1908 and had mentored at Oxford, granting him scholarships to conduct archaeological researches on Crusader military architecture in the Near East: Thomas Edward Lawrence (hereafter TEL). The following seasons were directed by C. Leonard Woolley who didn’t deprive himself of Lawrence’s collaboration during the five campaigns which took place until May 1914, while in 1920, when a new campaign was launched after the war, TEL was already far away from archaeology, being then involved in diplomacy. After July 1920 the site, which in the preceding year and a half was included in the territory under French control, was once again taken back by the Turkish military and was turned into a military post, which remained so until today. In 2011, exactly one century after the first major British mission, the Turco-Italian Expedition directed by N. Marchetti of the University of Bologna, with Hasan Peker from Istanbul University as his deputy, resumed excavations at the site and year after year is bringing to light again both the history of ancient Karkemish and the history of its former excavators. In fact, a very special field of research has been first the survey with one sounding (in 2011 and 2012) and then the extensive excavations (in 2013 and 2014) of the British Museum dig house built by TEL and Woolley in March 1912 within the Inner Town, as the letters kept in the British Museum archives revealed. The house was a large one-storey building set around a large courtyard, built according to local shape and techniques. The eighteen rooms and the courtyard served the many purposes of a dig house: giving a comfortable dwelling place to the excavation crew (between two, most often, to four British archaeologists) in the climatic extremes of the Karkemish The British dig house after territory and, most important, supplying proper spaces to the 2014 excavations study the numerous finds from the site. Lawrence’s and (Orthophoto by G. Luglio). 18 The T.E. Lawrence Society Newsletter No. 110 TE Lawrence Newsletter 110:Layout 1 11/3/15 07:51 Page 19

Woolley’s letters mention a darkroom for Lawrence’s photographs, a room containing maps, drawings and other graphic material, and the rooms needed for storing the growing amount of pottery and sculpted and inscribed stones (only one year after its construction some new storerooms had to be added along the front of the house). TEL was charged with maintenance: “I found our house filthy with leaking roofs, and have been lighting great fires in all rooms, and rebuilding fallen walls, and whitewashing, and making tarpaulins to mend roofs. You have no idea (unless you too have tried) how hard it is to make three large tarpaulins from one tin of tar and one tin of pitch” (letter dated February 1913 to D. G. Hogarth). Our excavations have materially brought to light much of that evidence: the house has now been restored and we are trying to raise the funds for covering it and opening it to the public as part of the visiting tour in the soon-to-be Karkemish Archaeological Park (the final permit from the Turkish Ministry of Defence is under way). The project also includes the creation of a small museum containing the every- day objects and tools found in the digs, Some of the modern objects and tools dating from the British excavations period discovered in the dig house and dating from up to the Turkish army occupation of the the period of the British excavations and house in the 1920s and early 1930s (when from the French and later Turkish military the house started to fall in ruins), occupation of the house representing as well a place in which to (Photos by F. Prezioso). reflect on the recent and often dramatic history of the border territory where Karkemish lies, which epitomises in fact the contemporary history of the Near East. The dig house came to be a treasure chest for archaeology, since an impressive amount of ancient artifacts (almost 800 pieces of Reverse of three sculpted and one inscribed basalt Iron Age Iron Age sculpture fragments recovered in the dig house. The pieces were originally and well over 200 found by Woolley and Lawrence and were marked with an Luwian Hieroglyphic absolute numbering by Lawrence (right) or through a progressive inscriptions) were still number referring to the year ([19]12, [19]13 and [191]4 preserved in it: many respectively for the fragments on the left) probably by Dahoum of them bear the (Photos by F. Prezioso). inventory numbers painted by TEL himself, who was in charge of the pottery study and the processing of stones, and his young Arab assistant Dahoum (the former was in fact marking the inscriptions with tiny and precise figures, while the latter seems to have done the same on sculptures, sometimes making writing mistakes). Many of the fragments were previously unknown, many were known only through photographs and some are parts of important, already published monuments of Karkemish: the scientific relevance of these discoveries from the British dig house goes without saying.

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The only piece of ancient art that was already known to be embedded in the dig house was the floor of the living room: an early Byzantine mosaic found in 1912 near the ancient site, which would have undergone destruction if Woolley and TEL hadn’t decided to remove it and place it there. The mosaic, quite a The kitchen (right) and the living room with mosaic floor (left) splendid artwork with during the Turco-Italian excavations in the British dig house. some damage which occurred during the latest occupation of the house, has now been brought back to light and restored. The study of archives went side by side with the excavations: photographs, letters, maps, field reports and drawings now held by institutions such as the British Museum, the Palestine Exploration Fund, the Bodleian Library, the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives of King’s College and many others, which depict a colourful picture of the daily life and work of the Karkemish excavators and especially of TEL’s proficiency and skilfulness. He even added his personal artistic touch to the house, for example by carving a limestone block with a winged sun emblem employed as the lintel of the door to the living room, or engaging with one of the many visitors of the digs in a sculptural competition in which he created a gargoyle-like figure (with Dahoum as a model), like the ones he had photographed years before during his tour in France, or squeezing, photographing and then trying to match together the Luwian inscription fragments that were not yet readable at that time, but the corpus of which was strongly improved in number and quality by the Karkemish excavations. At Karkemish, Lawrence deepened his affinity with the Arab culture and his knowledge of language, uses and territory that he had first mastered in his previous field researches and that eventually served him in the war experiences. What has been also made clear by our researches is that TEL was definitely a skilled archaeologist, an acute scholar provided with innovative scientific ideas and an ironic and empathic character. Had not the war interrupted the Karkemish exploration and changed TEL’s as well as many others’ destiny, his contribution to the developing Near Eastern archaeology would have been greater and perhaps today we may remember him as Lawrence the archaeologist. Our field results and an integral study of T. E. Lawrence’s steps and contributions to archaeology will be the subjects of the exhibition, “Lawrence of Arabia and the Discovery of the Orient. Archaeology and the Origins of the Legend”, that will be held in the Museum of Oriental Art in Turin, from October 2015 to January 2016. The exhibit will showcase, mostly through original items often unpublished, Lawrence’s photographs and letters, his remarkable watercolours of the Karkemish

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pottery, a 3D reconstruction of the expedition house, his manuscripts and scientific works of the years 1908-1914, while it will only be for a few items from David Lean’s movie (kept in the Turin National Museum of Cinema) to recall at the end of the exhibition what happened 3D reconstruction of the dig house as it appears after next and what bears so strongly the 2014 excavations (Model by G. Luglio). on the intricate relationship between contemporary East-West imagery and imagination: Lawrence the legend. All images are the copyright of the Turco-Italian Expedition at Karkemish

2 Polstead Road, Oxford Readers of the T.E. Lawrence Society Facebook page (which is available for anyone to read) will have seen the news that the elderly owner of the former Lawrence family home has passed away. The house, along with T.E. Lawrence’s bungalow in the back garden, is an important piece of Lawrence history. The future of the building is not known, but the Society has been approached by Liz Wade, the local Oxford City Councillor, to see if we could help to get the building listed as one of Special Architectural or Historic Interest. This involves making a case to English Heritage, and the Society has asked an acknowledged T.E. Lawrence expert if they could put forward a case. These are early days and of course the dream end use would be a scheme which includes a T.E. Lawrence resource. Listing the building would, however, ensure that the integrity of the building is maintained, but would not enable any public access beyond the current view from the road. As I write; Liz Wade is still trying to make contact with a known relative of the former owner. All I can say is, “Watch this space!” but if anyone has a spare £2.5 million (?) please do get in contact. Alan Payne Dates for Your Diary Saturday 20th June 2015 London Group Visit, venue to be advised. AGM 2015 will be at Shuttleworth Museum, Bedfordshire, Saturday 19th September 2015 Society Jordan Tour, April 2016 – register your interest now Symposium 2016 will be at St John’s College Oxford, Friday 23rd to Sunday 25th September 2016

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The Archaeology of Lawrence of Arabia Conference Report On 6th December, several Society members (including the Chairman) attended an afternoon and evening event at University College, London organised by The Petrie Museum/ ASTENE (Association for the Study of Travel in Egypt and the Near East) and CBRL (Council for British Research in the Levant). The purpose of the event was to explore the Archaeology of Lawrence of Arabia. The afternoon seminar session in the Gustav Tuck Lecture Theatre was followed by a reception in the nearby Petrie Museum, which contains some archaeological artefacts connected to Lawrence, and then a showing of David Lean’s film Lawrence of Arabia in the Lecture Theatre. The first of the three seminar guest speakers was Anthony Sattin who gave essentially the same illustrated talk that he gave at the 2014 T. E. Lawrence Society Symposium in Oxford (see Society Newsletter No 109) which explored Lawrence’s childhood and early life, and especially his period working as an archaeologist in Carchemish in the pre-war period. The second speaker was Cathie Bryan, Events Organiser at ASTENE, who gave a brief talk on the film Lawrence of Arabia – Fact, Fiction and Archaeology. It is hoped that an article by Cathie, based on her talk, will later be published either in the Society Newsletter or in the Cathie Bryan, Anthony Sattin Journal. The final speaker was Dr Neil Faulkner, Co-Director of the Great Arab Revolt Project (GARP), who gave a fully illustrated talk about the archaeological field work undertaken over nine seasons in Jordan by a mix of about 30 people, professionals and volunteers, whose work is now concluded. Dr Faulkner placed GARP’s approach and methodology in the context of modern industrialized warfare and wars bewteen peoples, the landscapes of battle, and the resultant archaeological imprint of modern conflict. He explained the variety of archaeological fieldwork methods used including metal detection, GPS survey, and ‘digging’. He spoke at some length about the importance of the Hedjaz railway, the many stations and defensive buildings between and , and the archaeology of everyday military life. He showed the evidence for their discovery of the tooth- shaped hill mentioned by Lawrence as well as the camp debris found in that area. Please note that GARP’s work will result in an online archive and book publications. It is also Angela Neale, Cathie Bryan, hoped that Dr Faulkner will be a speaker at Pieter Shipster, Philip Neale the Society’s 2016 Symposium. Images: Emmet Jackson, ASTENE Pieter Shipster

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Obituary – Nicholas A. Birnie Nicholas A. Birnie, who died on 17th January 2015, was one of the founding members of the T.E. Lawrence Society. His membership number was 3. Nick was an archaeologist and the first editor of the Journal. He spoke on Lawrence’s friendship with Frederic Manning at the first Symposium, held at Jesus College Oxford in September 1990. His paper subsequently appeared in the Journal in the winter of 1991-92. The story of how Nick became involved in the Society was recounted in an article, Beginnings, written by Ingrid Keith for the Newsletter in 1993. Ingrid remembered: ‘The T.E. Lawrence Society was born at the Red Lion Hotel, Wareham, Dorset, on the afternoon of 29th June 1985, in the presence of about 30 founder members. Nick Birnie, on a Lawrence visit to Dorset, had bought a helping of fish and chips, only to spot an article in the local newspaper in which they were wrapped about what I was trying to do. He got in touch with me immediately and his help proved invaluable over the next few months. He was a lot farther down the Lawrence road than I was, and was able to introduce me to all sorts of interesting people with Lawrence connections.’ Nicolas Lynch, a former Chairman of the Society, recalls: ‘I first met Nick Birnie in 1992. In 1991 he had taken on the role of editor of the new Society Journal, and he wrote to ask me if I could write up the cycle journey I had made in France the previous year. Nick’s letters were unmistakeable; written in black ink with a neat hand they revealed his thoughtful and earnest nature. Working with Jeremy Wilson and Hilary Hockman, Nick edited the Journal until the summer of 1993. He said his aim was for it to be accurate, interesting and readable while avoiding stuffy language and esoteric analysis. It is to his credit that he achieved this goal and set the bar quite high for his followers. ‘He had a serious air, and his conversation was like his carefully-crafted letters. He told me that he had once called on Wilfred Thesiger (1910-2003, famous traveller, writer and explorer) at his London home and had been asked to stay for tea. I think they had something cold, served from tins, which – steeped as he was in Clouds Hill lore – would have gone down well with Nick.’ We understand that Nick’s interest in Lawrence continued until the end. The Society offers its condolences to his family. Resource Material for Society Members and Researchers The Society holds many back numbers of our Journals and Newsletters. These are a valuable resource for our members and are often referenced by academic and also “hobby” researchers. This furthers one of our Society’s Objects, “to promote research...into T.E. Lawrence’s life and works”. If you would like to order back numbers (a small charge applies), please contact the Journal or Newsletter Editor. In addition, some copies can be accessed free of charge via our website, www.telsociety.org.uk.

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News

Liverpool Arab Arts Festival, Saturday 6th to Sunday 14th June 2015 www.arabartsfestival.com Facebook: Liverpool Arab Arts Festival This festival was founded in 1998 to provide Arab arts and culture in Liverpool. Over the years, this annual event has grown and developed, until now it is a celebration raising awareness and promoting an understanding and appreciation of Arabic culture for both Arab and non-Arab audiences in Liverpool and beyond. In 2010 the Festival was awarded the Arab British Centre’s Culture and Society Award.

Photographs for our Society Website If you have any photos of sites related to T E Lawrence, either in UK or abroad, and would like them to be part of our upgraded website, please get in touch with Vice Chairman Alan Payne. Many of you have extensive archives and you can be sure of an appreciative audience. Old postcards and photographs are welcome too, but please help us check copyright issues before we share them. Please add captions or details when you send material, along with your contact details, and a S.A.E. if you would like the images returned to you.

Did You Know Lawrence Personally? If you, or anyone you know, were acquainted with Lawrence, please share your stories with us. It’s seventy years since his death, so memories are fading but the interest in Lawrence still remains. Please contact our Chairman Philip Neale to share your stories, documents or photographs. You can add snippets to our Facebook page, too.

Membership Reminder To retain your membership, and keep up to date with Lawrence news, please ensure you have paid your subscription. One or two people are still behindhand! If you haven’t paid, then sadly you won’t continue to receive the excellent Society publications. Check with the Membership Secretary Louise Walker if you’re not sure, and deal promptly with the payment letter in this newsletter.

New Film Queen Of The Desert This film, based on the life of Gertrude Bell and featuring Robert Pattinson as Lawrence, was premiered recently at the Berlin International Film Festival. If you’ve seen it and would like to send in your comments, please write to the Newsletter Editor, or add them to our Facebook page.

Auction News A book from Lawrence’s library at Cloud’s Hill, Catallus, Tibullus, Propertius remained unsold in the New York Sotheby’s sale in December 2014. The estimate was $3000- $4000. The volume was number 240 of only 1000 copies printed. The book was previously owned by H R Walker, and was awarded for the “Greek Iambic Prize, Eton, 1912”. Who was H R Walker and did he survive the Great War?

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