THE REAL LAWRENCE

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 8, 10 July 1939, Page 7

THE REAL LAWRENCE

SIR R. STORRS'S MEMORIES

Sir, Ronald Storrs, formerly Oriental Secretary at the British Residency, -Cairo, Military Governor of Jerusalem, and Governor of Cyprus, lecturing to the English-speaking Union in London recently on Law-rence-of Arabia, is reported by the "Daily Telegraph" to have said:— Lawrence was often popularly imagined as "a super Rudolf Valentino; charging up and down the sands of the' desert, qualifying for posthumous honours in Hollywood." Then Sir Ronald drew this picture of the real Lawrence, whom he knew intimately. He was the untidiest ofiicer in the British Army. It seemed impossible for him to get all his uniform on correctly. He had an income of about £100 a year and did not even possess a dress suit. j I could as soon imagine Lawrence i in a frock coat or hunting pink as wearing an old school tie. He was the last conceivable product of the "public school type." The versatility of his accomplishments was amazing. The last motorcycle, built to his order but never ridden by him, had ten mechanical improvements he had invented. When he was my guest in Jerusalem he used to get up at 6 every morning and clean all the lamps in the house. His only extravagances were gramophone records and' - finely-printed books. He reduced life to an absolute minimum of necessities. He did not.smoke and he hardly ever drank; but he used the drug of speed. Once, on his motor-cycle, he raced an aeroplane for fifteen minutes. Sir Ronald said that Lawrence died ■an-., unhappy man. Towards the end of -^his life every sort of denigration brought to bear on him, and he sSras; assailed by a steady dribble of <lspreciation from people a great deal less talented than: himself. i