LAWRENCE WRITES TO HIS COUSIN FROM INDIA AND TALKS ABOUT THEIR FRIENDS THE HARDY’S LAWRENCE (T.[homas] E.[dward] 1888-1935, ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ British soldier, scholar and author of ‘The Seven Pillars of Wisdom’)

Superb long Autograph Letter Signed (‘T. E. Shaw’) to his cousin Milicent Lilian Teresa FETHERSTONEHAUGH (1894-1971, his cousin and a friend of Thomas and Emma Hardy) saying that it “was nice to think of Dorset again, as I read your letter. Miramshah is the Clouds' Hill only in that we burn wood for fuel. Otherwise it is a tiny brick fort, all ringed with barbed wire, in which 25 R.A.F. and 700 India troops live very shut up and peaceful lives. They will not let us go beyond the barbed wire and the aerodrome: so when I want fresh air, I take it in the air, literally! We are 3000 feet up, and it is cold. The mountains all about us are snow-dressed for their top 4000 feet. in the hollow, with us, there is no snow and very little frost: but it is cold enough to make an excuse for wood fires: and they are very luxurious. Afghanistan is only ten miles away. The newspapers in England seem to have had a burst of curiosity about me lately, and to have put me in all sorts of queer places. Only they haven't said Miramshah. Yet Miramshah is quite a queer place. I hope to come home in 1930. The delay is for a film about me to be produced and forgotten: and the film-magnate who proposed to do it has turned coy: probably he is short of money. I hope so, for perhaps he'll give it up: and that will be a great relief to me. I'm glad you see Mrs Hardy. She must have felt very unrooted when T. H. went: almost worse than you and Okers Wood, for T.H. must have been a great experience, as a house-mate: and the shadow of his reputation will be very heavy on her while she lives. Her first volume on T.H., is, I see, out: I've read bits of it. If you see her, will you say that I was delighted with the way they ran? It struck me, as once before, that it was as good as another book by the old man. I do wish people didn't die. He was worth going round the world just to see for five minutes: and now it's all over. A stupid little letter this: but I'd defy Samuel Pepys to fill a diary at Miramshah. It's like being in cold storage. My regards to B and the Morris! Yours, T. E. Shaw'...”, 4 sides 8vo., with original autograph envelope, 338171 A/C Shaw R.A.F., Miramshah Fort, Waziristan, India, 11th November

Shortly after Hardy's death, the executors of his estate burnt his letters and notebooks, but twelve notebooks survived, one of them containing notes and extracts of newspaper stories from the 1820s, and research into these has provided insight into how Hardy used them in his works. In the year of his death Mrs Hardy published The Early Life of Thomas Hardy, 1841–1891, compiled largely from contemporary notes, letters, diaries, and biographical memoranda, as well as from oral information in conversations extending over many years.
Lawrence had been forced out of the R.A.F. in February 1923 after his identity was exposed. He changed his name to T. E. Shaw (apparently as a consequence of his friendship with G. B. and Charlotte Shaw) and joined the Royal Tank Corps later that year. He was unhappy there and repeatedly petitioned to rejoin the R.A.F., which finally readmitted him in August 1925. A fresh burst of publicity after the publication of Revolt in the Desert resulted in his assignment to bases at Karachi and Miramshah in British India (now Pakistan) in late 1926, where he remained until the end of 1928. At that time, he was forced to return to Britain after rumours began to circulate that he was involved in espionage activities.
Okers Wood House in the heart of Dorset was the home of his cousins, the Frampton family and part of the Moreton Estate. He bought Cloud’s Hill from the estate.

Item Date:  1928

Stock No:  41759      £17500

             Add to Wish List     Order/Enquire