Today’s post was written by David Langbart, archivist in Research Services at the National Archives at College Park, MD.
Thomas Edward Lawrence is most famous for his action in the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire in support of British forces in the Middle East during World War I, activity that won him the appellation of “Lawrence of Arabia.”
Lawrence was introduced to Arab language, culture, and history while doing archeological work in the Middle East before World War I. He was later able to win support from the Arabs because of his respect and sympathy for their culture, by becoming fluent in Arabic, and living at ease amongst the tribes. He wrote about his wartime experiences in the self-aggrandizing book Seven Pillars of Wisdom, published in 1926.
After his service in the British army ended, he had a difficult time readjusting to civilian life and went back into the service. To avoid attention, he joined the Royal Air Force and then the Royal Army using the assumed names “John Hume Ross” and “T.E. Shaw.” He died in 1935 as a result of a motorcycle accident.
In 1962, Lawrence received later acclaim after his World War I service was depicted in David Lean’s monumental motion picture “Lawrence of Arabia,” winner of the Best Picture award at the 1963 Academy Awards ceremony. Peter O’Toole, in his introductory role, portrayed Lawrence as a heroic, if troubled, man ultimately let down by officials around him, both British and Arab.
Since then, the image of Lawrence has changed. A more critical view has taken hold. Lawrence is seen as well intentioned and sympathetic to Arab nationalism, but still serving an imperial master bent on control of the Middle East and control of the Arabs. The truth of Lawrence’s contributions remain controversial. It was so even shortly after his death.
In 1939, George Antonius, a noted scholar of Arab history and an activist on behalf of the Arab cause, met with Department of State official J. Rives Childs. Childs prepared the following Memorandum of Conversation to memorialize part of the meeting:
The careers of the two men who participated in this conversation are worthy of further exploration:
George Antonius was one of the first historians of Arab nationalism and is most noted for his book The Arab Awakening (1938). He was born in Lebanon but received his engineering degree from King’s College, Cambridge, where he obtained a degree in engineering in 1913. He worked in the Public Works Department of Alexandria, Egypt, until the beginning of World War I. During the war, he worked as a war correspondent with the British forces in Egypt. After the war, he worked in the British administration of Palestine for a short period. From 1919 to 1921, he worked with the Arab delegation in Europe headed by King Faisal publicizing the Arab cause. In 1921, he received an appointment to the British mandate government of Palestine and also worked with British officials negotiating the boundaries of Saudi Arabia, the Yemen, Iraq, and Jordan. Antonius resigned his position in Palestine in 1930 to become an associate of the Institute of Current World Affairs in New York. During the 1930s, and until he died in Jerusalem in 1942, Antonius continued to advocate for the Arab cause, lecturing in the U.S. and Canada, appearing before the Peel Commission, and serving as the secretary of the Palestinian delegation to the London Round Table conference.
At the time of this conversation, J. Rives Childs was not even half way through his foreign service career. Childs was born in Lynchburg, Virginia. He attended the Virginia Military Institute, received his undergraduate degree from Randolph-Macon College, and a master’s degree from Harvard. During World War I, he served in the American Ambulance Service in France (1915) and later in the U.S. Army (1917-1919). While in the Army he was detailed to the American Commission to Negotiate Peace (1919) and later to the American Relief Administration (ARA) in Serbia and Greece (1919). From 1919 to 1921, Childs worked as a newspaper correspondent. In 1921, he joined the ARA for work on relief efforts in the Soviet Union (1921-1923).
Childs began his foreign service career in 1923 as a consul in Jerusalem. He later served in Bucharest (1923-1930), Cairo (1930-1933), Tehran (1933-1935), back to Cairo (1935-1937), and then assigned to the Department of State in 1937. In 1940, he went back overseas as consul and 1st Secretary at Tangier. He remained in Morocco as Chargé d’Affaires ad interim (1941-1945). After a brief posting in the Department, Childs served as Minister to Saudi Arabia (1946-1949), then as Ambassador to Saudi Arabia (1949-1950) after that post was elevated to embassy status, and finally served as Ambassador to Ethiopia (1951-1953), at which point he retired. While serving in Saudi Arabia, he was also accredited as Minister to Yemen. Rives had interests outside the foreign realm; he was an authority on Giacomo Casanova. Rives died in Richmond, VA, in 1987.
Sources: Memorandum of Conversation, “Lawrence of Arabia,” January 10, 1939, file 890B.00/174, 1930-39 Central Decimal File (NAID 302021), RG 59: General Records of the Department of State. The picture of Lawrence comes from Seven Pillars of Wisdom.
Childs prepared two other memorandums on other parts of his conversation with Antonius. One of them, on the general subject of the Palestine issue and events leading to the London conference was published in FOREIGN RELATIONS OF THE UNITED STATES. The other discussed the differing fallout from robbery of two banks in Nablus.
Fascinating, thank you.
Very interesting. Thanks.
Fascinating! Thank you for the great research!
It’s very clear that Lawrence did not exaggerate his role in the Seven Pillars of Wisdom. If Colonel Newcombe, insisted that it was Lawrence’s genius, that made the difference in the Arab Revolt, then it was! He had no reason to back Lawrence except for telling the truth. Lawrence himself made it clear that the book was written as purely his point of view.
Auda and Feisal were the warriors but Lawrence was the strategist and the liaison officer. It was an extraordinary feat of intelligence and endurance. Though the Arabs claim Lawrence was not a warrior, it is the wife of his commanding officer in the RAF, Clare Smith, long after the war, that pointed out that she had noticed when they were all swimming in a swimming pool that his body was covered in scars.
There are so many other courageous stories about Lawrence. When Ibn Saud deposed Prince Ali as King of Hejaz, after only one year as king, and some time after the Arab Revolt, Lawrence (as liaison officer for the Hussein family) joined Harry St John Philby (the liaison officer for Ibn Saud) to fly out to Cairo to try and negotiate the peace. He was recovering from a plane crash that had killed the pilot and co-pilot and had just left the hospital in Crete. He was picked up by Philby and the pilots and was flown to Cairo. As they were coming into land in an old First World War aircraft, Lawrence crawled out onto the wing of the plane to help guide the pilot to land because the pilot was blinded by the lights of Cairo. Also, a long time before the First World War Lawrence walked 1000 miles across Syria to study crusader castles for his dissertation. An extraordinary feat of endurance.
Lawrence was also known for emulating Christ and living in the Spirit not the flesh. He had a monastic lifestyle and considered himself a monk living in the secular world rather than a monastery. He was an unusual character and Fareedah al Akle his Syrian arabic teacher who knew him well before the war in Syria, said it was not his exploits in the desert that made him great but his wonderful character and marvellous personality. She mentions how he aimed to live in the Spirit not in the physical.