THE REAL LAWRENCE

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4810, 14 July 1939, Page 2

THE REAL LAWRENCE

SIR R. STORRS' MEMORIES. UNTIDIEST OFFICER IN ARMY. 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 Lawrence 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 officer in the British Army. It seemed impossible for him to get all his uniform n correctly. He had an income of about £IOO a year and did not even possess a dress suit.

I could as soon imagine Lawrence 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 be used the drug of speed. Once, on his motor-cylce, 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 was brought to bear on him, and he was assailed by a steady dribble of depreciation from people a great deal less talented than himself.