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I see he said he loathed to be 'celluloided'. After Lean's great 'Lawrence' film I'd wonder what he'd say! One of the most interesting Englishmen ever. And time to check that film out once again.
From 1994 - 1998 I was a member of the Royal Merchant Navy of the UK. I'm an American, with a US Passport, but I got a job with the well known British passenger ship company Cunard ... so I had to take several seamanship courses (of dubious value).
Whilst I was working on the Cunard flagship, RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 (QE2), I met an elderly distinguished Englishman by the name of Nigel Nicholson. Nicholson was the author, amongst others, of a book called Portrait Of A Marriage. The book was about his parents: Sir Harold Nicholson and Lady Vita Sackville-West. This couple attained a small degree of fame and influence from shortly after the beginning of the 20th Century up until World War 2. Nicholson autographed my copy of his book. BBC did a multi-series "docu-drama" about the couple in the '90's.
The marriage of Sir Harold and Lady Vita was one of convenience. They were both extremely rich and privileged and they owned one of those magnificent country manor houses surrounded by world renowned gardens. They were best friends and loved eachother but Sir Harold was gay and Lady Vita was a lesbian. Back in those days - 1910's, 1920's, and after there was no such thing as gay marriage. That is what gay folks did to maintain a facade of respectability and social status. (There were some exceptions to this: the noted author, poet and social reformer Edward Carpenter lived with his male lover openly and they presented themselves as a married couple to their Victorian world, but they were tolerated because they seemed so outrageously bohemian and charmingly eccentric!)
Sir Harold was a very handsome, rich, educated and charming fellow. He was, however a "player" with a robust libido. Translation: he liked to sleep around. It is widely believed he found Lawrence attractive and had an affair with the famous Lawrence of Arabia. Nigel Nicholson believes that is the case. The docu-drama on BBC showed them having an affair.
So, that is my connection with Lawrence of Arabia.
I can recall seeing Lawrence of Arabia as a thirteen-year-old in the winter of 1962-63, and on only two TV broadcasts since. The treatment of Lawrence's sexual preferences was, for the time, quite frank. One wonders how these might be portrayed under contemporary standards, but an epic by Sir David Lean is a pretty challenging candidate for a remake.
I could really care less about Lawrence's sexual preferences.
His role in history though is an interesting one. During World War I, Lawrence was sent by the British General Staff in Cairo to find King Faisal and his band of Bedouin Arabs which had revolted against the Ottoman Turks. The Ottomans were allies of Germany in that war. At that time, the Turks or the Ottoman Empire occupied most of the Middle East. This would include the lands that constitute modern day Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Israel, and Saudi Arabia.
On their own, Faisal's Bedouins had driven the Turks out Arabian city of Mecca. However, they had encountered stiff resistance from the Turks at Medina and their progress had been halted. Lawrence found Faisal and his Arabs. He came upon a strategy of guerrilla warfare in which the Arabs would strike at Turkish railways destroying both track and trains. This is vividly depicted in Lawrence of Arabia with Peter O'Toole.
The capture of the city of Aquaba by the Arab forces, marked a big turning point. The British chose to provide substantial aid and military assistance to Faisal. The combination of British regular forces under General Allenby and Faisal's "irregular" Arab Bedouins was too much for the Turks and they were forced out of Arabia and even Jerusalem. The conflict came to an end after Damascus was captured.
Lawrence developed an affinity for his Arab colleagues and hoped to see them obtain independent nations for themselves after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. However, this was not to be. Lawrence appeared with Faisal in Paris after the war to plead their case. However, a decision was made between the major powers in Paris at the Treaty of Versailles negotiations that the former Ottoman Empire lands would be placed under control of both Britain and France and that each would be given a "mandate" to administer these territories. Faisal did eventually did become King of Iraq and Syria. The British had made promises during World War I that would come back to haunt them. They had promised the Arabs countries of their own. They also promised the Jews in Palestine a country of their own. They would be decades in keeping these promises though.
The movie Lawrence of Arabia interestingly depicts Lawrence in the end as a man who realizes that he has been "hoodwinked" by both his superiors (General Allenby) and by even Faisal himself. Lawrence had naively believed that his gallant Arabs would be rewarded for their efforts with an independent country. In the end, though, even Faisal perhaps perceived the men he lead weren't read for their own country and reluctantly acquiesced to the arrangement of British and French mandates in the Middle East. I think these scenes are exaggerated and combine a lot of things that happened over time. However, I suspect by the time the Treaty of Versailles was completed in 1919, this may indeed summarize Lawrence's feelings.
The movie does not directly address the role that oil played in causing the British and the allies to want some control over the lands in the Middle East following the end of the war. However, what is interesting is its depiction of the widespread use of automobile and truck transit of soldiers that does subtly suggest that in this post-War modern world that oil is going to become very important.
Perhaps, Lawrence can best be described as a junior British staff officer who took the opportunities provided him by World War I and performed great feats that helped defeat the Ottoman Empire. That is the legacy he left behind at the end of his young life of 46 years.
Last edited by markg91359; 03-25-2014 at 06:58 AM..
“All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible. This I did.”
TE Lawrence The Seven Pillars of Wisdom
That he did. And that once arguably 'quiet' Englishman sure made his name and illustrious fame in those hot and expansive desert sands.
And he could write...more from the 7 Pillars..
“We were fond together because of the sweep of open places, the taste of wide winds, the sunlight, and the hopes in which we worked. The morning freshness of the world-to-be intoxicated us. We were wrought up with ideas inexpressible and vaporous, but to be fought for. We lived many lives in those whirling campaigns, never sparing ourselves: yet when we achieved and the new world dawned, the old men came out again and took our victory to remake in the likeness of the former world they knew. Youth could win, but had not learned to keep, and was pitiably weak against age. We stammered that we had worked for a new heaven and a new earth, and they thanked us kindly and made their peace.”
Sir Harold was a very handsome, rich, educated and charming fellow. He was, however a "player" with a robust libido. Translation: he liked to sleep around. It is widely believed he found Lawrence attractive and had an affair with the famous Lawrence of Arabia. Nigel Nicholson believes that is the case. The docu-drama on BBC showed them having an affair.
So, that is my connection with Lawrence of Arabia.
Cool story but I'd say the more historically-relevant connection between Nicolson (no h) and Lawrence is that both were at the Paris Conference in 1919 and both were in the Foreign Office dealing with the Middle East and Mesopotamia. Lawrence obviously had a bigger role at the conference, but Nicolson's account of it has often been cited (including by Margaret MacMillan IIRC). Nicolson also wrote a book on Curzon.
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