Whatever Lawrence might think of them, the honors he had earned were not neglected. Colonel Wilson, who only a few months ago had referred to him as “a bumptious young ass,” recommended Lawrence for the Distinguished Service Order (DSO), a decoration for bravery for officers that is only one step below the Victoria Cross (VC), and praised his “personality, gallantry and grit.” General Sir Reginald Wingate was even more impressed by Lawrence’s secret journey through Syria than by the taking of Aqaba. Wingate praised Lawrence to the chief of the imperial general staff (CIGS) in London, and going one step beyond Colonel Wilson, asked for “special recognition” of “this gallant and successful adventure"—the Victoria Cross.*

Despite this recommendation, Lawrence was ineligible for the Victoria Cross, since there were no British witnesses to his feats; but the DSO was not considered a sufficient reward, so instead Lawrence was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB), the Military Division of which was then limited to 750 members. This was an extraordinary and unprecedented honor for a man of only twenty-eight, and one that Lawrence shared with such illustrious predecessors as Nelson and the duke of Wellington. Since a CB could not be awarded to an officer below field rank, Lawrence was instantly promoted to major to make him eligible.

Lawrence never acknowledged or accepted the award; nor did he, as he later claimed, turn it down, since he was unable to. Once an award hasbeen made, on the basis of recommendations by the recipient’s superior officers, it is published in the London Gazette, the official newspaper of the crown, which, among other things, publishes all military postings, promotions, and awards. The moment the award has been “gazetted,” it is official. So far as the army and the crown were concerned, Lawrence was now Temporary Second-Lieutenant and Acting Major T. E. Lawrence, CB, and always would be, whether he accepted the actual decoration itself from the hand of the king or not. He was henceforth entitled to put the initials after his name, and to wear the ribbon of the CB on his uniform, though he never did. This is an important point because Lawrence believed that he had turned the award down, while the fact was that he could not do so, however much he may have wanted to.

He would write to his father later of the award: “Tell Mother they asked for that twopenny thing* she likes [the Victoria Cross], but fortunately didn’t get it. All these letters & things are so many nuisances afterwards, & I’ll never wear or use any of them. Please don’t either. My address is simply T.E.L., no titles please.”

Lawrence was already famous within the British army in the Middle East, and at his ease with figures as important as the CIGS, but even he could not have imagined that within a year he would be world famous as the “prince of Mecca,” the “uncrowned king of Arabia,” and, more permanently, as “Lawrence of Arabia,” a phrase he could never get rid of.

But who, exactly, was he?

* Lawrence brought the rifle home with him after the war, and presented it to King George V. it is now displayed prominently in the arms collection of the imperial War Museum in London.

* Lawrence was the first military hero to carry a camera with him into battle, as well as a dagger, a pistol, and a rifle. A gifted and enthusiastic amateur photographer, he also played a role in the development of aerial photography, and most of the good (and genuine) photographs of the Arab revolt are by him.

* The Geneva Conventions were not observed in the desert. Arab wounded were normally tortured, then killed by the turks, either by being bayoneted or by having their throats cut. As a result, the Arabs usually killed their own wounded, rather than leaving them to the mercy of the turks. The Arabs had in any case no way to transport or care for turkish wounded or their own. The British paid for turkish prisoners by the head, since many of them were Arabs who had been conscripted into the ottoman army and who might be persuaded into fighting the turks. on both sides, the level of cruelty was high.

* Circassians were a Caucasian people, many of whom were sent into exile in the ottoman empire after the russian army finally conquered their mountain homeland. Many of them were blond, blue-eyed, and fair-skinned, though Muslim. Their women were exceptionally beautiful, and much prized in the harems of wealthy turks. it may have been Lawrence’s ability to pass as a Circassian that would save his life later on, when he was taken prisoner at Deraa (see page 342).

* “My center is giving way, my right is in retreat; situation excellent, i shall attack!”

* Liddell Hart remarks admiringly that this is an early example of Lawrence’s genius for strategy taking over virtually without a pause from the tactical ability he had shown in the battle, and perhaps it is. Lawrence was as precocious in his military abilities as he was in almost everything else he put his hand to, and like Odysseus, the future translator of the Odyssey was at once a bold warrior, a brilliant planner, and a man with an infinite capacity for craft and deceit. Lawrence was both a hero and “Odysseus of the many wiles,” to quote from his own translation, and using his pocket diary as a weapon—in this case more potent than mortars or mountain guns, neither of which he possessed—is an early example of the kind of unexpected thinking that made him a formidable guerrilla leader.

* Now the site of a major border crossing from egypt into Gaza.

* Mitla Pass would be the site of major tank battles between the Israelis and the Egyptians in 1956, 1967, and 1973.

* The Victoria Cross has been awarded only 1,353 times since it was created on January 29, 1856, by Queen Victoria as Britain’s highest award for valor and gallantry in the face of the enemy. it can be awarded both to officers and to other ranks, and takes precedence over all other British military awards.

* The Victoria Cross is made of bronze from russian cannons captured at Sebastopol, during the Crimean War, and was popularly supposed to cost only twopence to manufacture.

CHAPTER THREE

“The Family Romance”

These consciously remembered mental impulses of childhood embody the factor which enables us to understand the nature of hero-myths The later stage … begun in this manner might be described as “the neurotic’s family romance.”—Sigmund Freud, Collected Papers Shortly before the outbreak of World War I, a tall, lean, slightly stooped gentleman of distinguished appearance sat down in the small study of his modest Oxford home to write a letter to his five sons, to be opened and read only after his death. Whether he had some apprehension—unfounded, as it turned out—about his own health, or whether like many intelligent people he sensed the storm clouds of war upon the horizon, and knew that those of his sons who were old enough to do so would want to serve king and country, it is impossible to guess. In any event, he briefly, and with great dignity, outlined for them what he and their mother had never been able to share with them during all their years together as a family.

On the envelope, once he had sealed it, he wrote in his firm handwriting, “To my sons—But not to be opened except mother and I are dead—OR when mother desires to—”

My dear sons—I know this letter will be a cause of great sorrow and sadness to you all as it is to me to write it. The cruel fact is this, that yr Mother and I were never married.

When I first met Mother, I was already married. An unhappy marriage without love on either side—tho’ I had four young daughters. Yr Mother and I unfortunately fell in love with each other and when the exposй came, thought only of getting away and hiding ourselves with you Bob, then a Baby. There was no divorce between my wife and myself. How often have I wished there had been! Then I drank and mother had a hard time but happily I was able to cure myself of that. You can imagine or try to imagine how yr. Mother and I have suffered all these years not knowing what day we might be recognized by someone and our sad history published far and wide. You can think of what delight we saw each of you growing up to manhood for men are valued for themselves and not for their family history, except of course under particular circumstances. My real name when I met yr Mother was Thomas Robert Tighe Chapman Bart but needless to say I have never taken the Title. There is one little ray of sunshine in the sad history, namely, that my sister who married my cousin Sir Montagu Chapman, & my brother Francis Vansittart Chapman of South Hill (my father’s place; the life interest of which I agreed to sell) were always loving to me & it is thro’ their goodness that I have been able to leave you the greater part of the sum I have left. My brother at his death left me Ј25000. & my sister in her Will has bequeathed me Ј20000, but owing to the wording of her Will I shall not receive this Ј20000 if I die before her. She is alive but a great invalid & no fresh Will of hers wld be valid tho’ I know she intended and wished this Ј20000 to go to you all, if I should die before her. She for many years gave me Ј300 a year, which, with my own fortune, enabled us all to live very comfortably & saved Mother and me great pinching to make ends meet & also kept me from drawing on my Capital for every day expenses.