February 4, 2025 • 32 mins
Most people know of the famous "Lawrence of Arabia" thanks to the iconic imagery of the Oscar-winning film. But far fewer people know of the real man behind the myth, who fought for Britain and for the Arab Revolt during World War I and became a folk hero in the process.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm
and Mild from Aaron Manky. Listener discretion advised. There are
a few different Thomas Edward Lawrences. The first Thomas Edward
Lawrence is the one the public knew. He first became
(00:21):
famous in his own lifetime thanks to a popular lecture
series about his contributions during World War One. He later
had a full length feature film made about him that
went on to win the Oscar for Best Picture. Maybe
you've heard of it, Lawrence of Arabia. He was a
hero who made sacrifices and put himself through hardship, all
(00:44):
in the name of Arab sovereignty and for the love
of his fellow soldiers. The second Thomas Edward Lawrence is
the one that he personally chose to present to the world.
He wrote an autobiography that was well received by the public.
In it, he exaggerated somewhat about his accomplishments, but he
(01:05):
was also honest about the nuances behind his motivations for
fighting in the Middle East. To begin with this, Thomas
Edward was friends with George Bernard Shaw and advised Winston
Churchill briefly. Perhaps the least known Thomas Edward Lawrence is
the real one. This one grew up somewhat ashamed of
(01:28):
his unwed parents and acted out against his mom because
of it. He might have been queer, maybe even asexual,
but he never declared his interests one way or another.
He had big hopes and dreams for himself, and even
though he accomplished so much, he didn't necessarily feel as
though he lived up to his goals. This Thomas Edward
(01:52):
was only truly known by one person himself, if at all.
Of course, in reality, all of these different Lawrences are
the same person. They're all the famous Lawrence of Arabia.
But being so famous, with so many people, even himself
(02:14):
interpreting and translating his story for the world, there were
so many different versions of T. E. Lawrence. Most of
us know him as the swashbuckling hero from the famous
nineteen sixty two film. The striking image of his face
outfitted with a white head covering against the desolate Wadi
(02:35):
Rum desert might be the first thing you imagine when
you hear Lawrence of Arabia. Even six decades after the
movie's premiere and almost a century after the man's death,
Lawrence of Arabia as a character remains prominent in our culture.
His image persists in collective memory, even if we've forgotten
(02:58):
why he was in Arabia to begin with, or whether
or not he was even a real person. So who
was Lawrence of Arabia? Who was the real man behind
the hero? Behind every great man, every name widely known
and recognized, is the real person? Full of flaws, nuances
(03:22):
and mortality? In this episode, we'll explore the real man
and the real history behind the famous Lawrence of Arabia.
T e. Lawrence. If it's possible to know the real
man at all, I'm Dana Schwartz and this is noble Blood.
(03:45):
Like a few other great figures we've covered on Noble Blood,
Lawrence was not actually destined from birth to become an
important historical actor. In fact, quite the opposite. Lawrence was
the illegitimate son of Thomas Chapman, a minor Irish noble
with the title of Baronet of Kilawa Castle in County Westmouth, Ireland,
(04:08):
and Sarah Junior, the governess of Thomas's daughters with his
first wife. Thomas never claimed his baronetcy in Ireland and
instead left his first family and lived out of wedlock
with Sarah and the five boys they would have together.
Te Lawrence was their second child, born in eighteen eighty eight,
(04:32):
and of his siblings, Lawrence was the most mischievous and
strong willed, traits that would benefit him later in life.
During his time in the Middle East, what originally took
Lawrence to Arabia was actually an interest in archaeology, a
fascination that blossomed in his teenaged years while he was
(04:53):
living in Oxford. Biking around Oxford and the surrounding countryside,
Lawrence and his friend would collect archaeological artifacts. They would
then submit their findings, typically glass fragments or rubbings of
medieval tombs, to the Ashmolean Museum. Lawrence took his archaeologically
(05:15):
driven cycling to the next level when he was in
college at Oxford University, when he toured France by bike
to research medieval castles. Continuing to venture further from home
and into the region that he would later become almost
synonymous with, Lawrence then undertook a three month walking tour
(05:36):
of Syria studying Crusader castles. Just like everyone here at
Noble Blood, Lawrence was a bit obsessed with the Middle Ages,
as evidenced by his various tours across the Mediterranean, as
well as his extensive knowledge of medieval clothing. For that
reason alone, we have to love him a little bit.
(06:00):
Lawrence became a working archaeologist in nineteen ten when a
keeper at the Ashmolean Museum named D. G. Hogarth, who
had noticed Lawrence's aptitude back when he was just a
teenager biking around Oxfordshire, hired him to join a dig
in northern Syria. Once hired, Lawrence participated in digs in
(06:22):
this area of Northern Syria as well as in Egypt
for four years. During this time, he developed a working
knowledge of the Arabic language, as well as a cursory
understanding of Middle Eastern political dynamics and how foreign actors
tried to sway locals. The knowledge of Arab politics and
(06:43):
the Arabic language that Lawrence gained working in the region
was what set him up for the job that would
launch his career as a British archaeologist. Lawrence fell into
the population of people that the British Empire utilized as
informal international spies. Collecting intel was of paramount importance on
(07:06):
the eve of World War I, as the Ottoman Empire,
over six centuries old at this point, was disintegrating. Just
as the power dynamics in Europe were tenuously kept in
balance during the early twentieth century, so too were the
dynamics of colonial holdings in the Middle East. Britain in particular,
(07:30):
was wary of Russia and Germany, threatening the quote jewel
of the Empire, India, as well as their Egyptian colony,
which included all important access to the Suez Canal. So,
with the Ottoman Empire, which at least in theory controlled
the majority of the Middle East, waning in power, the
(07:52):
British looked to gather intel on the local tribes inhabiting
the region and the efforts by other European names to
shore up power in the vacuum. Lawrence first formally entered
this thinly veiled line of work just months before the
outbreak of World War One, when he joined a British
(08:13):
team surveying the Sinai Peninsula. This endeavor was ostensibly to
look for archaeological signs of the Israelites' exile in the
desert after fleeing Egypt, but in reality the British military
wanted to chart the region in anticipation of potential military
(08:34):
maneuvers against the Ottomans. But Lawrence wouldn't be long for
this project. Once the team traversed the peninsula and reached
the city of Akaba on the tip of the Red Sea,
he was kicked out of town by the project's Turkish
supervisors for disobeying rules. As evidence by being kicked out
(08:58):
of this survey project, being an agent of the British
Empire proved somewhat difficult for the independently minded Lawrence, but
that project was just the beginning of his work with
and for the British government. Naturally, the outbreak of World
War I drew Lawrence into service, and it was due
(09:20):
to his service that Te Lawrence would become Lawrence of Arabia.
But even in this time of war, when patriotism surged
and people banded together under their imperial and national flags,
he struggled to reconcile his beliefs and convictions with those
of his imperial employer. While most accounts of World War
(09:45):
One focus on the Eastern and western fronts of the
war in Europe, the Eastern, Mediterranean and Middle Eastern theater
of war was just as important, particularly to the British Empire.
With the outbreak of war and the Ottomans officially entering
the war on the side of Germany and Austria Hungary,
(10:07):
protecting the Suez Canal became a matter of massive military
importance for the Brits. In taking on the Ottoman Turks,
the British appeared to adhere to the old phrase the
enemy of my enemy is my friend. At this time,
there was a growing movement of Arab nationalism sweeping across
(10:30):
portions of the Ottoman Empire, unified under the rule of
Sharif Hussain, the Emir or Prince of Mecca, a conglomerate
of Middle Eastern Arabs, was amassing, looking to carve out
from the Ottoman Empire a Muslim Arab sovereign nation. Once
World War One broke out. It was actually Sharif Hussain
(10:53):
who quickly approached the British about an alliance. He would
lead Arab soldiers against the Ottoman if the British committed
to the creation of an autonomous Arab state after the war.
The British took a long time to respond to this offer.
They weren't thrilled about committing to an Arab state in
(11:13):
the region, but they really needed whatever support they could
get against the Turks, eventually needing to save face after
a disastrous Gallipoli campaign. The British accepted the terms tentatively,
and Sharif Hussain launched the Arab Revolt officially in June
nineteen sixteen. From that point on, the British attempted to
(11:38):
aid the Arabs against the Turks by providing advice, weapons,
and men, but struggled to provide that support without undermining
their own long term goals in the region. When they
agreed to support the Arabs, they hadn't mentioned that they
had already made an agreement with France called the Sykes
(11:59):
Picot Agreement that essentially carved up the Ottoman Empire, leaving
pieces for the French and the English and almost nothing
for the Arab state. Hence the difficulty in supporting the
Arab revolt wholeheartedly. It was in that context, the outbreak
of the Arab Revolt and the British efforts to channel
(12:22):
and control the movement that t E Lawrence evolved into
Lawrence of Arabia. In the early years of the war,
while the British were still negotiating with Sharif Hussain in
Mecca t E. Lawrence was stationed in Cairo working for
the Arab Bureau, making maps and writing military bulletins. The
(12:45):
Arab Bureau, led by Lawrence's mentor, the man who had
actually discovered him back as a young boy, the archaeologist D. G. Hogarth,
was an arm of the British Army. The purpose of
the Arab Bureau was to collect, elect and distribute intel
and propaganda throughout the Arab world during the war. As such,
(13:07):
through his work at the Bureau, Lawrence was tapped into
the ongoing battle against the Turks. He was also aware
of the struggle of the Arab people to establish their
own state in the aftermath of the Ottoman Empire's disintegration
in nineteen sixteen, after the Arab Revolt launched, things weren't
(13:29):
looking too good for the British and the Arabs. The
British had been routed at the city of Kut south
of Baghdad, and the Arab Army had been unable to
take Medina, the second holiest site in Islam and in
Ottoman stronghold. In order to bolster British and Arab efforts, Lawrence,
(13:49):
who had been to the Middle East before and had
some command of the language, was deemed the best person
to undertake a fact finding mission for British intelligen Jens.
He traveled to the coast of the Arabian Peninsula, also
known as the Hijas, so that he could meet and
evaluate Sharif Houssain's sons. The hope was that one of
(14:12):
them could be the quote prophet, the galvanizing figurehead to
lead the Arab army to victory. Traversing the Red Sea
on a boat and then the desert on camelback, Lawrence
met each of the sons and concluded that Sharif Hussain's
son Faisal was the man for the job. Once he
(14:32):
met with Fasil in the desert of the Hijas, there
was no going back for Lawrence. He had dipped his
toe into the Arab revolt and felt compelled to dive
headfirst back into it. As an advisor to Prince Fasial,
Lawrence was sympathetic to the Arab cause and felt he
had all of the qualities needed to spearhead British involvement
(14:55):
in the movement. Lawrence believed honestly in Arab nationalism, but
as an agent of the British Empire, he was supposed
to be advocating for strategies that ultimately benefited the British.
This internal tension would plague him for the rest of
his time in the Middle East. How could he encourage
(15:16):
the Arab army to fight and capture territory that they
would not be allowed to control after the war. Nevertheless,
he pushed these contradictions aside and let himself be moved
into action. Now stationed at Faisal's side, Lawrence started getting
first hand experience living and fighting in the desert alongside
(15:39):
the majority of the other soldiers Bedouin tribesmen. The Arab
Bedouin tribes are nomadic herdsmen who know the Wadi Rum
desert like the backs of their hands. The Arab revolt
had been relying on these Bedouin tribespeople for about half
of their soldiers, but they had trouble controlling them untrained
(16:01):
and highly mobile groups. They didn't adhere to the commands
that the British military issued. Lawrence, a genius at appraising
the situation in front of him, realized that exactly what
made the Bedouins so difficult to wrangle might actually be
their strength. Instead of trying to force these nomadic people
(16:23):
to go against their nature and custom, Lawrence realized they
were the perfect soldiers for gorilla warfare. They could descend
upon the Turks when and where they least expected them,
exact violence, and then vanish back into the desert. In reality,
the Bedouin tribes had been fighting with each other in
(16:44):
these types of gorilla raids for centuries, so Lawrence wasn't
inventing a novel type of warfare. He was just the
first brit to recognize the utility of that custom. These
pinprick raids, as Lawrence them, would distract and ultimately weaken
the Ottomans, thereby allowing the Arab revolt to gain momentum
(17:08):
and have a fighting chance at succeeding. Lawrence recommended to
Faisal that they harnessed their manpower for these guerrilla raids,
specifically targeting the Hijaz railroad running from Ottoman Syria to Medina.
This way, the Arab army would not only disrupt lines
of transportation and communication between the Turks last outpost in
(17:31):
Arabia and their territory further north, but they would also
force the Ottomans to divert their resources away from fighting
and towards repairing the railway. In March nineteen seventeen, the
first explosive device that Lawrence planted derailed an Ottoman train,
which the Bedouin tribesmen thoroughly looted, and they destroyed a
(17:54):
portion of the railway. The success of this relatively simple
tactic pleased Fasal, and the Arab army proceeded to go
all in on Lawrence's guerrilla tactics for the rest of
the war. Lawrence and his allies would lay bombs along
the Hjaz railway and target trains carrying military supplies. This
(18:16):
strategy proved incredibly effective, harnessing the power of the Bedouins
and disrupting the Ottoman war machine in the Middle East.
With each passing day riding through the desert with various
Bedouin tribes, Lawrence ingratiated himself further into the Arab Army.
The clearest sign of this was his adoption of customary
(18:39):
Arab clothing that would become synonymous with his image later
in life. White robes with a white head covering, perfect
for sun protection in the desert. But Lawrence did more
than just try to look the part. He also walked
the walk in his commitment to on the ground participation
in military engagements. The most famous skirmish that he participated
(19:04):
in was the nineteen seventeen Battle of Akaba, which was
then held by the Turks. With a group of roughly
five hundred Bedouin tribesmen, Lawrence treked across Wadi Rum and
approached Akaba from land, which, despite Wadi Rum's beauty, was
an incredibly treacherous and exhausting undertaking. Once they reached the
(19:29):
mountains just outside Akaba, Lawrence and his fellow soldiers descended
suddenly from the mountains, catching the Turks by surprise and
easily capturing the port city with just a few Arab casualties.
Lawrence hadn't actually received approval for this campaign, so he
was lucky that this win provided the British Army with
(19:51):
a much needed port through which they could send supplies
into the region. That fact allowed Lawrence, in his capacity
as a British officer, to justify this otherwise unauthorized campaign
into northern Arabia. This quote battle, which was really more
of a guerrilla attack, also demonstrated the strength of Arab
(20:14):
forces and galvanized the army from that city. Facial Lawrence
and the army of Bedouin tribesmen leaned into their momentum
and mobilized towards Damascus in Ottoman Syria. As the caravan
marched north, Lawrence led the way, regularly planting bombs on
(20:34):
the railway and battling with Ottoman soldiers. It was this
type of dedication to the war, Lawrence's commitment to the
cause that later led to his heroic status. That isn't
to say that Lawrence was entirely noble in all of
his conduct in battle. Like during what came to be
(20:55):
known as the Taughas Massacre, Lawrence was, by his own
a mission unnecessarily brutal against his enemies. Lawrence himself actually
struggled for years with his conduct following the war, but
when Lawrence described the episode years later, his language reflects
how much he identified with his Arab compatriots and their
(21:18):
anguish at years under the Ottoman regime. Finally, in the
fall of nineteen eighteen, after slowly fighting and marching their
way through the desert, the Arab army arrived in Damascus,
and the Ottoman army quickly surrendered and vacated the city.
Lawrence and his comrades had reached the city before the
(21:40):
British had, and they strung up the flag of the
Arab Revolt to claim it. Despite knowing that the British
government fully intended not to allow the Arabs to rule
the region, Lawrence helped Prince Faisal set up a provisional
government in the city. He leaned into his allegiance to
the Arabs he had fought along side, as opposed to
(22:01):
the British army that technically employed him. They had done it.
The Arab Revolt had taken a major city from the
Ottomans and claimed control before any European powers could. Not
only had T. E. Lawrence traversed the deserts of the
Middle East, but he had been instrumental in getting the
(22:21):
Arab revolt this far. He saw this moment as the
beginning of a sovereign Arab nation, but unfortunately this was
as far as this movement would go, and it was
also essentially the end of T. E. Lawrence's career in
military and politics. But it was just the beginning of
(22:42):
the rise of the almost mythological hero Lawrence of Arabia.
Not long after the Arab army took Damascus, the Ottoman
Empire would collapse, Germany would surrender, and World War One
would be over. While the end of a brutal war
was an occasion for celebration, the real work of the
(23:04):
Arab revolt now began. Delegations from across the world descended
on Paris for the Paris Peace Conference of nineteen nineteen
and nineteen twenty, intent on helping Fasial and his father,
leader of the movement, Scharif Hussain, make their claim for
Arab sovereignty in the New World Order. Lawrence attended the
(23:26):
conference as a member of Faisal's delegation. He sought to
use his rank in the British government and his relationships
with British officers to help convince them of the need
for Arab sovereignty. Unfortunately, Lawrence was no match for the
power of colonialism. Coming out of the conference, there was
(23:46):
to be no independent Arab state. Instead, Britain and France
held mandates to manage portions of these regions, including the
land that the Arab Revolt had claimed. While this was
certainly a loss for Lawrence, the conference was not wholly bad.
It was at the Peace Conference that he first started
(24:08):
writing about his time fighting in Arabia and with the
Bedouin tribes. Over the next several years, Lawrence would write
and rewrite his autobiographical book, The Seven Pillars of Wisdom.
Lawrence did embellish certain portions of his story, but he
also captured his thoughts and emotions regarding his time in
(24:31):
the desert. He acknowledged that his motivations behind his work
in Arabia were complicated. Part of him wanted to participate
in a national movement, while another part wanted to win
the war for Britain. By the time his autobiography came
out in nineteen twenty two, Lawrence was already actually a
(24:53):
household name, both in England and in America. For that,
we can thank Lowell Thomas, an American broadcaster and photographer.
At the very end of World War One, Thomas traveled
to the Middle East, where he took photographs of the war,
the people, and of course, t e Lawrence. Upon Thomas's
(25:16):
return to the States, he produced a popular lecture series
entitled With Allenby in Palestine that focused on British General
Allenby's campaign in the region. Thomas realized that audiences were
specifically drawn to images of Lawrence in his Arabic robes,
(25:37):
so when the production transferred to London in nineteen twenty,
Thomas refocused the production on both Allenby and Lawrence, and
changed the title of the series too, with allenb in
Palestine and Lawrence in Arabia. It was Lowell Thomas's production
(25:57):
that changed T. Lawrence into Lawrence of Arabia in the
public imagination. The later publication of Lawrence's autobiography, and eventually
the Oscar winning movie only cemented T. E. Lawrence as
the daring, swashbuckling hero of the Middle East. I want
(26:19):
to clarify something that while this episode focuses on Lawrence
of Arabia, he was not the sole reason that the
Arab Revolt succeeded, nor was he the only person to
have contributed to the success of the Arab Revolt. To
say that he was is to ignore the contributions of
many British military officials and the even more important contributions
(26:42):
of the Arab tribespeople who fought for their own sovereignty. T. E.
Lawrence is certainly a key figure in this important era
of history and a fascinating person. T. E. Lawrence was
certainly a key player during this era and a fascinating person,
but his importance in the Arab Revolt has been heightened
(27:05):
by the creation of the character Lawrence of Arabia and
the appeal of his striking imagery. Additionally, I want to
make clear the idea and the appeal of the man
Lawrence of Arabia very much relies on Orientalist tropes about
the Middle East being an exotic, erotic and savage place
(27:27):
and accessible only through the vantage point of a white protagonist.
It's an easy narrative but also a fundamentally exploitative one
to imagine this well educated Englishman harnessing the power of
the previously untamable Erab people who fell in love with
them in the process. I think there's a way not
(27:48):
to singularly idolize T. Lawrence while also recognizing his major
contributions to the Middle Eastern theater during World War One
and the creation of his public persona. Now back to
Lawrence's post war life. He briefly served in the Colonial
Office as an advisor to Winston Churchill, but he hated
(28:11):
being stuck behind the desk doing bureaucratic work, so in
nineteen twenty two, Lawrence joined the Royal Air Force, where
he served at various bases across the British Empire for
the next decade. Just two months after leaving military service
in nineteen thirty five, Lawrence was partaking in one of
(28:32):
his favorite hobbies, driving his motorcycle. Unfortunately, on that day,
Lawrence didn't see two young boys riding their bikes on
a dip of the road ahead of him, and he
belatedly swerved to avoid hitting them with his motorcycle. In
doing so, Lawrence was thrown from his bike and gravely
(28:54):
injured six days later, at the age of forty six,
T E. Lawrence. While Lawrence's premature death brought an end
to his adventures, it was only the beginning of his
life as the world renowned Lawrence of Arabia, figure of
myth That's the story of the man behind the Hero.
(29:20):
T E. Lawrence, But stick around after a brief sponsor
break to hear how Lawrence of Arabia contributed to safety
laws in the UK. According to historian Michael Korda, up
until Princess Diana's death, perhaps no other vehicular accident had
(29:44):
received as much scrutiny as Te Lawrence's motorcycle crash. Immediately
after Lawrence's death, an inquest was opened. The inquest didn't
provide people much clarity, unfortunately, as it only illuded, eminated
in consistencies in testimony, and led to a multitude of
(30:05):
theories around the death. In fact, some people even believed
that the famous World War I veteran was assassinated by
either a domestic or foreign agent, a claim which has
never actually been credibly substantiated. Not everyone saw Lawrence's death
as something to investigate for salacious reasons, though one man
(30:28):
was prompted by the unfortunate death to do some good.
When t Lawrence was hospitalized after the accident, he was
attended to by neurosurgeon Hugh Cairns, one of six surgeons
who attempted to save Lawrence's life to no avail. After
Lawrence's death, Cairns started researching those who died in motorcycle accidents.
(30:54):
He looked specifically at those who received head injuries as
a result of the accident, like Laurence had when he
flew over his handlebards. Karns's research revealed just how deadly
motorcycle crashes could be when head trauma happened. These findings
ultimately influenced UK law against mandatory helmet safety. Nowadays, it's
(31:19):
uncommon to see people riding motorcycles without helmets unless they
have an adrenaline addiction or a death wish. So next
time you hear about a motorcycle accident with no casualties
because the rider was wearing a helmet, you can thank
Lawrence of Arabia. Noble Blood is a production of iHeartRadio
(31:50):
and Grim and Mild from Aaron Mankey. Noble Blood is
hosted by me Dana Schwartz, with additional writing and research
by Hannah Johnston, Hannahswick, Courtney Sender, Amy Hit and Julia Milani.
The show is edited and produced by Jesse Funk, with
supervising producerrima Ill Kali and executive producers Aaron Manke, Trevor Young,
(32:14):
and Matt Frederick. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows.
Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm
and Mild from Aaron Manky. Listener discretion advised. There are
a few different Thomas Edward Lawrences. The first Thomas Edward
Lawrence is the one the public knew. He first became
(00:21):
famous in his own lifetime thanks to a popular lecture
series about his contributions during World War One. He later
had a full length feature film made about him that
went on to win the Oscar for Best Picture. Maybe
you've heard of it, Lawrence of Arabia. He was a
hero who made sacrifices and put himself through hardship, all
(00:44):
in the name of Arab sovereignty and for the love
of his fellow soldiers. The second Thomas Edward Lawrence is
the one that he personally chose to present to the world.
He wrote an autobiography that was well received by the public.
In it, he exaggerated somewhat about his accomplishments, but he
(01:05):
was also honest about the nuances behind his motivations for
fighting in the Middle East. To begin with this, Thomas
Edward was friends with George Bernard Shaw and advised Winston
Churchill briefly. Perhaps the least known Thomas Edward Lawrence is
the real one. This one grew up somewhat ashamed of
(01:28):
his unwed parents and acted out against his mom because
of it. He might have been queer, maybe even asexual,
but he never declared his interests one way or another.
He had big hopes and dreams for himself, and even
though he accomplished so much, he didn't necessarily feel as
though he lived up to his goals. This Thomas Edward
(01:52):
was only truly known by one person himself, if at all.
Of course, in reality, all of these different Lawrences are
the same person. They're all the famous Lawrence of Arabia.
But being so famous, with so many people, even himself
(02:14):
interpreting and translating his story for the world, there were
so many different versions of T. E. Lawrence. Most of
us know him as the swashbuckling hero from the famous
nineteen sixty two film. The striking image of his face
outfitted with a white head covering against the desolate Wadi
(02:35):
Rum desert might be the first thing you imagine when
you hear Lawrence of Arabia. Even six decades after the
movie's premiere and almost a century after the man's death,
Lawrence of Arabia as a character remains prominent in our culture.
His image persists in collective memory, even if we've forgotten
(02:58):
why he was in Arabia to begin with, or whether
or not he was even a real person. So who
was Lawrence of Arabia? Who was the real man behind
the hero? Behind every great man, every name widely known
and recognized, is the real person? Full of flaws, nuances
(03:22):
and mortality? In this episode, we'll explore the real man
and the real history behind the famous Lawrence of Arabia.
T e. Lawrence. If it's possible to know the real
man at all, I'm Dana Schwartz and this is noble Blood.
(03:45):
Like a few other great figures we've covered on Noble Blood,
Lawrence was not actually destined from birth to become an
important historical actor. In fact, quite the opposite. Lawrence was
the illegitimate son of Thomas Chapman, a minor Irish noble
with the title of Baronet of Kilawa Castle in County Westmouth, Ireland,
(04:08):
and Sarah Junior, the governess of Thomas's daughters with his
first wife. Thomas never claimed his baronetcy in Ireland and
instead left his first family and lived out of wedlock
with Sarah and the five boys they would have together.
Te Lawrence was their second child, born in eighteen eighty eight,
(04:32):
and of his siblings, Lawrence was the most mischievous and
strong willed, traits that would benefit him later in life.
During his time in the Middle East, what originally took
Lawrence to Arabia was actually an interest in archaeology, a
fascination that blossomed in his teenaged years while he was
(04:53):
living in Oxford. Biking around Oxford and the surrounding countryside,
Lawrence and his friend would collect archaeological artifacts. They would
then submit their findings, typically glass fragments or rubbings of
medieval tombs, to the Ashmolean Museum. Lawrence took his archaeologically
(05:15):
driven cycling to the next level when he was in
college at Oxford University, when he toured France by bike
to research medieval castles. Continuing to venture further from home
and into the region that he would later become almost
synonymous with, Lawrence then undertook a three month walking tour
(05:36):
of Syria studying Crusader castles. Just like everyone here at
Noble Blood, Lawrence was a bit obsessed with the Middle Ages,
as evidenced by his various tours across the Mediterranean, as
well as his extensive knowledge of medieval clothing. For that
reason alone, we have to love him a little bit.
(06:00):
Lawrence became a working archaeologist in nineteen ten when a
keeper at the Ashmolean Museum named D. G. Hogarth, who
had noticed Lawrence's aptitude back when he was just a
teenager biking around Oxfordshire, hired him to join a dig
in northern Syria. Once hired, Lawrence participated in digs in
(06:22):
this area of Northern Syria as well as in Egypt
for four years. During this time, he developed a working
knowledge of the Arabic language, as well as a cursory
understanding of Middle Eastern political dynamics and how foreign actors
tried to sway locals. The knowledge of Arab politics and
(06:43):
the Arabic language that Lawrence gained working in the region
was what set him up for the job that would
launch his career as a British archaeologist. Lawrence fell into
the population of people that the British Empire utilized as
informal international spies. Collecting intel was of paramount importance on
(07:06):
the eve of World War I, as the Ottoman Empire,
over six centuries old at this point, was disintegrating. Just
as the power dynamics in Europe were tenuously kept in
balance during the early twentieth century, so too were the
dynamics of colonial holdings in the Middle East. Britain in particular,
(07:30):
was wary of Russia and Germany, threatening the quote jewel
of the Empire, India, as well as their Egyptian colony,
which included all important access to the Suez Canal. So,
with the Ottoman Empire, which at least in theory controlled
the majority of the Middle East, waning in power, the
(07:52):
British looked to gather intel on the local tribes inhabiting
the region and the efforts by other European names to
shore up power in the vacuum. Lawrence first formally entered
this thinly veiled line of work just months before the
outbreak of World War One, when he joined a British
(08:13):
team surveying the Sinai Peninsula. This endeavor was ostensibly to
look for archaeological signs of the Israelites' exile in the
desert after fleeing Egypt, but in reality the British military
wanted to chart the region in anticipation of potential military
(08:34):
maneuvers against the Ottomans. But Lawrence wouldn't be long for
this project. Once the team traversed the peninsula and reached
the city of Akaba on the tip of the Red Sea,
he was kicked out of town by the project's Turkish
supervisors for disobeying rules. As evidence by being kicked out
(08:58):
of this survey project, being an agent of the British
Empire proved somewhat difficult for the independently minded Lawrence, but
that project was just the beginning of his work with
and for the British government. Naturally, the outbreak of World
War I drew Lawrence into service, and it was due
(09:20):
to his service that Te Lawrence would become Lawrence of Arabia.
But even in this time of war, when patriotism surged
and people banded together under their imperial and national flags,
he struggled to reconcile his beliefs and convictions with those
of his imperial employer. While most accounts of World War
(09:45):
One focus on the Eastern and western fronts of the
war in Europe, the Eastern, Mediterranean and Middle Eastern theater
of war was just as important, particularly to the British Empire.
With the outbreak of war and the Ottomans officially entering
the war on the side of Germany and Austria Hungary,
(10:07):
protecting the Suez Canal became a matter of massive military
importance for the Brits. In taking on the Ottoman Turks,
the British appeared to adhere to the old phrase the
enemy of my enemy is my friend. At this time,
there was a growing movement of Arab nationalism sweeping across
(10:30):
portions of the Ottoman Empire, unified under the rule of
Sharif Hussain, the Emir or Prince of Mecca, a conglomerate
of Middle Eastern Arabs, was amassing, looking to carve out
from the Ottoman Empire a Muslim Arab sovereign nation. Once
World War One broke out. It was actually Sharif Hussain
(10:53):
who quickly approached the British about an alliance. He would
lead Arab soldiers against the Ottoman if the British committed
to the creation of an autonomous Arab state after the war.
The British took a long time to respond to this offer.
They weren't thrilled about committing to an Arab state in
(11:13):
the region, but they really needed whatever support they could
get against the Turks, eventually needing to save face after
a disastrous Gallipoli campaign. The British accepted the terms tentatively,
and Sharif Hussain launched the Arab Revolt officially in June
nineteen sixteen. From that point on, the British attempted to
(11:38):
aid the Arabs against the Turks by providing advice, weapons,
and men, but struggled to provide that support without undermining
their own long term goals in the region. When they
agreed to support the Arabs, they hadn't mentioned that they
had already made an agreement with France called the Sykes
(11:59):
Picot Agreement that essentially carved up the Ottoman Empire, leaving
pieces for the French and the English and almost nothing
for the Arab state. Hence the difficulty in supporting the
Arab revolt wholeheartedly. It was in that context, the outbreak
of the Arab Revolt and the British efforts to channel
(12:22):
and control the movement that t E Lawrence evolved into
Lawrence of Arabia. In the early years of the war,
while the British were still negotiating with Sharif Hussain in
Mecca t E. Lawrence was stationed in Cairo working for
the Arab Bureau, making maps and writing military bulletins. The
(12:45):
Arab Bureau, led by Lawrence's mentor, the man who had
actually discovered him back as a young boy, the archaeologist D. G. Hogarth,
was an arm of the British Army. The purpose of
the Arab Bureau was to collect, elect and distribute intel
and propaganda throughout the Arab world during the war. As such,
(13:07):
through his work at the Bureau, Lawrence was tapped into
the ongoing battle against the Turks. He was also aware
of the struggle of the Arab people to establish their
own state in the aftermath of the Ottoman Empire's disintegration
in nineteen sixteen, after the Arab Revolt launched, things weren't
(13:29):
looking too good for the British and the Arabs. The
British had been routed at the city of Kut south
of Baghdad, and the Arab Army had been unable to
take Medina, the second holiest site in Islam and in
Ottoman stronghold. In order to bolster British and Arab efforts, Lawrence,
(13:49):
who had been to the Middle East before and had
some command of the language, was deemed the best person
to undertake a fact finding mission for British intelligen Jens.
He traveled to the coast of the Arabian Peninsula, also
known as the Hijas, so that he could meet and
evaluate Sharif Houssain's sons. The hope was that one of
(14:12):
them could be the quote prophet, the galvanizing figurehead to
lead the Arab army to victory. Traversing the Red Sea
on a boat and then the desert on camelback, Lawrence
met each of the sons and concluded that Sharif Hussain's
son Faisal was the man for the job. Once he
(14:32):
met with Fasil in the desert of the Hijas, there
was no going back for Lawrence. He had dipped his
toe into the Arab revolt and felt compelled to dive
headfirst back into it. As an advisor to Prince Fasial,
Lawrence was sympathetic to the Arab cause and felt he
had all of the qualities needed to spearhead British involvement
(14:55):
in the movement. Lawrence believed honestly in Arab nationalism, but
as an agent of the British Empire, he was supposed
to be advocating for strategies that ultimately benefited the British.
This internal tension would plague him for the rest of
his time in the Middle East. How could he encourage
(15:16):
the Arab army to fight and capture territory that they
would not be allowed to control after the war. Nevertheless,
he pushed these contradictions aside and let himself be moved
into action. Now stationed at Faisal's side, Lawrence started getting
first hand experience living and fighting in the desert alongside
(15:39):
the majority of the other soldiers Bedouin tribesmen. The Arab
Bedouin tribes are nomadic herdsmen who know the Wadi Rum
desert like the backs of their hands. The Arab revolt
had been relying on these Bedouin tribespeople for about half
of their soldiers, but they had trouble controlling them untrained
(16:01):
and highly mobile groups. They didn't adhere to the commands
that the British military issued. Lawrence, a genius at appraising
the situation in front of him, realized that exactly what
made the Bedouins so difficult to wrangle might actually be
their strength. Instead of trying to force these nomadic people
(16:23):
to go against their nature and custom, Lawrence realized they
were the perfect soldiers for gorilla warfare. They could descend
upon the Turks when and where they least expected them,
exact violence, and then vanish back into the desert. In reality,
the Bedouin tribes had been fighting with each other in
(16:44):
these types of gorilla raids for centuries, so Lawrence wasn't
inventing a novel type of warfare. He was just the
first brit to recognize the utility of that custom. These
pinprick raids, as Lawrence them, would distract and ultimately weaken
the Ottomans, thereby allowing the Arab revolt to gain momentum
(17:08):
and have a fighting chance at succeeding. Lawrence recommended to
Faisal that they harnessed their manpower for these guerrilla raids,
specifically targeting the Hijaz railroad running from Ottoman Syria to Medina.
This way, the Arab army would not only disrupt lines
of transportation and communication between the Turks last outpost in
(17:31):
Arabia and their territory further north, but they would also
force the Ottomans to divert their resources away from fighting
and towards repairing the railway. In March nineteen seventeen, the
first explosive device that Lawrence planted derailed an Ottoman train,
which the Bedouin tribesmen thoroughly looted, and they destroyed a
(17:54):
portion of the railway. The success of this relatively simple
tactic pleased Fasal, and the Arab army proceeded to go
all in on Lawrence's guerrilla tactics for the rest of
the war. Lawrence and his allies would lay bombs along
the Hjaz railway and target trains carrying military supplies. This
(18:16):
strategy proved incredibly effective, harnessing the power of the Bedouins
and disrupting the Ottoman war machine in the Middle East.
With each passing day riding through the desert with various
Bedouin tribes, Lawrence ingratiated himself further into the Arab Army.
The clearest sign of this was his adoption of customary
(18:39):
Arab clothing that would become synonymous with his image later
in life. White robes with a white head covering, perfect
for sun protection in the desert. But Lawrence did more
than just try to look the part. He also walked
the walk in his commitment to on the ground participation
in military engagements. The most famous skirmish that he participated
(19:04):
in was the nineteen seventeen Battle of Akaba, which was
then held by the Turks. With a group of roughly
five hundred Bedouin tribesmen, Lawrence treked across Wadi Rum and
approached Akaba from land, which, despite Wadi Rum's beauty, was
an incredibly treacherous and exhausting undertaking. Once they reached the
(19:29):
mountains just outside Akaba, Lawrence and his fellow soldiers descended
suddenly from the mountains, catching the Turks by surprise and
easily capturing the port city with just a few Arab casualties.
Lawrence hadn't actually received approval for this campaign, so he
was lucky that this win provided the British Army with
(19:51):
a much needed port through which they could send supplies
into the region. That fact allowed Lawrence, in his capacity
as a British officer, to justify this otherwise unauthorized campaign
into northern Arabia. This quote battle, which was really more
of a guerrilla attack, also demonstrated the strength of Arab
(20:14):
forces and galvanized the army from that city. Facial Lawrence
and the army of Bedouin tribesmen leaned into their momentum
and mobilized towards Damascus in Ottoman Syria. As the caravan
marched north, Lawrence led the way, regularly planting bombs on
(20:34):
the railway and battling with Ottoman soldiers. It was this
type of dedication to the war, Lawrence's commitment to the
cause that later led to his heroic status. That isn't
to say that Lawrence was entirely noble in all of
his conduct in battle. Like during what came to be
(20:55):
known as the Taughas Massacre, Lawrence was, by his own
a mission unnecessarily brutal against his enemies. Lawrence himself actually
struggled for years with his conduct following the war, but
when Lawrence described the episode years later, his language reflects
how much he identified with his Arab compatriots and their
(21:18):
anguish at years under the Ottoman regime. Finally, in the
fall of nineteen eighteen, after slowly fighting and marching their
way through the desert, the Arab army arrived in Damascus,
and the Ottoman army quickly surrendered and vacated the city.
Lawrence and his comrades had reached the city before the
(21:40):
British had, and they strung up the flag of the
Arab Revolt to claim it. Despite knowing that the British
government fully intended not to allow the Arabs to rule
the region, Lawrence helped Prince Faisal set up a provisional
government in the city. He leaned into his allegiance to
the Arabs he had fought along side, as opposed to
(22:01):
the British army that technically employed him. They had done it.
The Arab Revolt had taken a major city from the
Ottomans and claimed control before any European powers could. Not
only had T. E. Lawrence traversed the deserts of the
Middle East, but he had been instrumental in getting the
(22:21):
Arab revolt this far. He saw this moment as the
beginning of a sovereign Arab nation, but unfortunately this was
as far as this movement would go, and it was
also essentially the end of T. E. Lawrence's career in
military and politics. But it was just the beginning of
(22:42):
the rise of the almost mythological hero Lawrence of Arabia.
Not long after the Arab army took Damascus, the Ottoman
Empire would collapse, Germany would surrender, and World War One
would be over. While the end of a brutal war
was an occasion for celebration, the real work of the
(23:04):
Arab revolt now began. Delegations from across the world descended
on Paris for the Paris Peace Conference of nineteen nineteen
and nineteen twenty, intent on helping Fasial and his father,
leader of the movement, Scharif Hussain, make their claim for
Arab sovereignty in the New World Order. Lawrence attended the
(23:26):
conference as a member of Faisal's delegation. He sought to
use his rank in the British government and his relationships
with British officers to help convince them of the need
for Arab sovereignty. Unfortunately, Lawrence was no match for the
power of colonialism. Coming out of the conference, there was
(23:46):
to be no independent Arab state. Instead, Britain and France
held mandates to manage portions of these regions, including the
land that the Arab Revolt had claimed. While this was
certainly a loss for Lawrence, the conference was not wholly bad.
It was at the Peace Conference that he first started
(24:08):
writing about his time fighting in Arabia and with the
Bedouin tribes. Over the next several years, Lawrence would write
and rewrite his autobiographical book, The Seven Pillars of Wisdom.
Lawrence did embellish certain portions of his story, but he
also captured his thoughts and emotions regarding his time in
(24:31):
the desert. He acknowledged that his motivations behind his work
in Arabia were complicated. Part of him wanted to participate
in a national movement, while another part wanted to win
the war for Britain. By the time his autobiography came
out in nineteen twenty two, Lawrence was already actually a
(24:53):
household name, both in England and in America. For that,
we can thank Lowell Thomas, an American broadcaster and photographer.
At the very end of World War One, Thomas traveled
to the Middle East, where he took photographs of the war,
the people, and of course, t e Lawrence. Upon Thomas's
(25:16):
return to the States, he produced a popular lecture series
entitled With Allenby in Palestine that focused on British General
Allenby's campaign in the region. Thomas realized that audiences were
specifically drawn to images of Lawrence in his Arabic robes,
(25:37):
so when the production transferred to London in nineteen twenty,
Thomas refocused the production on both Allenby and Lawrence, and
changed the title of the series too, with allenb in
Palestine and Lawrence in Arabia. It was Lowell Thomas's production
(25:57):
that changed T. Lawrence into Lawrence of Arabia in the
public imagination. The later publication of Lawrence's autobiography, and eventually
the Oscar winning movie only cemented T. E. Lawrence as
the daring, swashbuckling hero of the Middle East. I want
(26:19):
to clarify something that while this episode focuses on Lawrence
of Arabia, he was not the sole reason that the
Arab Revolt succeeded, nor was he the only person to
have contributed to the success of the Arab Revolt. To
say that he was is to ignore the contributions of
many British military officials and the even more important contributions
(26:42):
of the Arab tribespeople who fought for their own sovereignty. T. E.
Lawrence is certainly a key figure in this important era
of history and a fascinating person. T. E. Lawrence was
certainly a key player during this era and a fascinating person,
but his importance in the Arab Revolt has been heightened
(27:05):
by the creation of the character Lawrence of Arabia and
the appeal of his striking imagery. Additionally, I want to
make clear the idea and the appeal of the man
Lawrence of Arabia very much relies on Orientalist tropes about
the Middle East being an exotic, erotic and savage place
(27:27):
and accessible only through the vantage point of a white protagonist.
It's an easy narrative but also a fundamentally exploitative one
to imagine this well educated Englishman harnessing the power of
the previously untamable Erab people who fell in love with
them in the process. I think there's a way not
(27:48):
to singularly idolize T. Lawrence while also recognizing his major
contributions to the Middle Eastern theater during World War One
and the creation of his public persona. Now back to
Lawrence's post war life. He briefly served in the Colonial
Office as an advisor to Winston Churchill, but he hated
(28:11):
being stuck behind the desk doing bureaucratic work, so in
nineteen twenty two, Lawrence joined the Royal Air Force, where
he served at various bases across the British Empire for
the next decade. Just two months after leaving military service
in nineteen thirty five, Lawrence was partaking in one of
(28:32):
his favorite hobbies, driving his motorcycle. Unfortunately, on that day,
Lawrence didn't see two young boys riding their bikes on
a dip of the road ahead of him, and he
belatedly swerved to avoid hitting them with his motorcycle. In
doing so, Lawrence was thrown from his bike and gravely
(28:54):
injured six days later, at the age of forty six,
T E. Lawrence. While Lawrence's premature death brought an end
to his adventures, it was only the beginning of his
life as the world renowned Lawrence of Arabia, figure of
myth That's the story of the man behind the Hero.
(29:20):
T E. Lawrence, But stick around after a brief sponsor
break to hear how Lawrence of Arabia contributed to safety
laws in the UK. According to historian Michael Korda, up
until Princess Diana's death, perhaps no other vehicular accident had
(29:44):
received as much scrutiny as Te Lawrence's motorcycle crash. Immediately
after Lawrence's death, an inquest was opened. The inquest didn't
provide people much clarity, unfortunately, as it only illuded, eminated
in consistencies in testimony, and led to a multitude of
(30:05):
theories around the death. In fact, some people even believed
that the famous World War I veteran was assassinated by
either a domestic or foreign agent, a claim which has
never actually been credibly substantiated. Not everyone saw Lawrence's death
as something to investigate for salacious reasons, though one man
(30:28):
was prompted by the unfortunate death to do some good.
When t Lawrence was hospitalized after the accident, he was
attended to by neurosurgeon Hugh Cairns, one of six surgeons
who attempted to save Lawrence's life to no avail. After
Lawrence's death, Cairns started researching those who died in motorcycle accidents.
(30:54):
He looked specifically at those who received head injuries as
a result of the accident, like Laurence had when he
flew over his handlebards. Karns's research revealed just how deadly
motorcycle crashes could be when head trauma happened. These findings
ultimately influenced UK law against mandatory helmet safety. Nowadays, it's
(31:19):
uncommon to see people riding motorcycles without helmets unless they
have an adrenaline addiction or a death wish. So next
time you hear about a motorcycle accident with no casualties
because the rider was wearing a helmet, you can thank
Lawrence of Arabia. Noble Blood is a production of iHeartRadio
(31:50):
and Grim and Mild from Aaron Mankey. Noble Blood is
hosted by me Dana Schwartz, with additional writing and research
by Hannah Johnston, Hannahswick, Courtney Sender, Amy Hit and Julia Milani.
The show is edited and produced by Jesse Funk, with
supervising producerrima Ill Kali and executive producers Aaron Manke, Trevor Young,
(32:14):
and Matt Frederick. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows.
Host
Dana Schwartz
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