This week in history: 19th May 1935

Born in north Wales in 1888, Thomas Edward Lawrence was an archaeologist and photographer before the Great War, but his studies and that conflict took him far from home. Not one for formality and uniforms, Lawrence seized the opportunity to act as military liaison with and advisor to Sherif Faisel, one of Grand Sherif Hussein’s four sons. Having harassed the enemy and sabotaged supply and communication lines, Lawrence rode into Damascus with his Arab comrades to greet General Allenby’s victorious forces on 1st October 1918. He remained in the spotlight after the war and joined the RAF then the Tank Corps under assumed names. On 19th May 1935, at the age of 46, he succumbed to head injuries suffered in a motorbike accident in Dorset, southwest England.