Who was Lawrence of Arabia

A first edition of Lawrence of Arabia's famous book, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, has just been sold for �18,000 to a mystery bidder at auction.

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The book recounts T. E. Lawrence's experiences as a British liaison officer during the Arab Revolt in 1916, when, posing as an Arab, he led guerrilla raids against Turkish forces. His story was inspiration for the epic 1962 film starring Peter O'Toole.

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So who was he

Thomas Edward Lawrence (1888-1935) was the illegitimate son of Sir Thomas Chapman and Sarah Junner (sometimes listed as Sara Maden), his children's governess. The name 'Lawrence' had been assumed when they eloped together.

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How did he get caught up in the Great War

Lawrence attended Jesus College, Oxford, and won first-class honours in 1910. Soon after he went on an archaeological expedition to the Euphrates. When the First World War began in 1914, Lawrence became a civilian employee of the map department of the War Office, charged with preparing a military map of Sinai. By December, 1914, he was a lieutenant in Cairo.

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And then on to glory

He rapidly became an expert on Arab affairs, much valued by the War Office. Turkey had become a German ally and the Arabs, who had revolted against the Turks, needed to be focused in their rebellion. Lawrence joined Faysal, son of Husayn ibn Ali, amir of Mecca, as political and liaison officer. He led hit-and-run guerrilla operations, focusing upon the mining of bridges and supply trains and generally tying down enemy forces that should have been deployed elsewhere.

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Lawrence, who became known as 'Amir Dynamite' to the admiring Bedouins, persuaded the�Arab sheikhs to follow his vision of an Arab nation, goading them with his own bravery, bribing them with enemy spoils and British gold. It worked, for the main part. He was promoted to lieutenant-colonel.

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So, he was a regular gung-ho hero

No. He always thought of himself as an academic and writer.

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After the war

Lawrence realised his vision of an Arab nation would never work. Disillusioned, he left for home just before the Armistice and politely refused, at a royal audience on 30 October, 1918, the Order of the Bath and the DSO, leaving the shocked king George V (in his words) 'holding the box in my hand'.

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Dressed in Arab robes, he lobbied vainly for Arab independence at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919.

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He worked on his war memoir and acquired a seven-year research fellowship at All Souls' College, Oxford, in November, 1919.

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By that time his exploits were becoming known to a wide public, after an American war correspondent, Lowell Thomas, had begun an immensely popular series of illustrated lectures.

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And he capitalised on his fame

Hardly. He wanted to fulfil his promises, but no further glory. Lawrence went briefly back to the Middle East as adviser on Arab affairs to the colonial minister, Winston Churchill.

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After Cairo political settlements, which included a few of Lawrence’s war-time pledges, he refused all offers of further positions in government, and enlisted as John Hume Ross in the RAF on 28 August, 1922.

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Fleet Street rumbled him and he soon left. By March, 1923, he enlisted as a private in the Royal Tank Corps, this time as T E Shaw, was posted to Bovington Camp in Dorset. He bought a cottage nearby and this remained his home until his death in a motorcycle accident in March, 1935.

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By Steve Cunningham