> LETTERS FROM LAWRENCE Enigmatic is the word they often use about Lawrence of Arabia and it is certainly true that interest in this unusual man seems to increase rather than abate. Looking at the amount of material published about him it is difficult to imagine that there could be any more so it is quite a surprise when what appears to be ‘new’ correspondence turns up which, if published sources are any guide, has not been seen in the public domain before. Letter from Lawrence from lodgings in Southampton Most of these letters reveal a man of quite normal tastes and interests; here, for example, is part of one written from lodgings in Southampton while he was still in the Royal Air Force and assisting with the design and development of high speed rescue launches. The letters were written to an old Royal Tank Corps comrade, Private ‘Posh’ Palmer who probably earned the nickname on account of his interests in literature and classical music. The letters remained in the family and were donated to the Tank Museum recently by Ken Palmer, ‘Posh’ Palmers son. One letter in this collection is quite remarkable. The remarkable letter written 10th May 1935, just days before he died. Dated 10 May 1935 and written from his cottage Clouds Hill, near Bovington, the letter includes a reference, perhaps not a very serious one, to suicide as a means of making “a complete break with the past”. The irony is that, on the 13th, the following Monday, Lawrence was injured in a motorcycle accident from which he died six days later. Medical opinion at the time stated that, even had Lawrence recovered, ‘he would have known nothing whatsoever of his past’ Lawrence signs himself TES (Thomas Edward Shaw) the name he adopted when he joined the RTC. The collection includes letters from the author E M Forster, another close friend of Lawrence, and one refers to the translation of Forster’s novel Passage to India into French. To view previous article(s) in this series, click here.	Previous 'New Additions'