16th August Born on this day 1888 in Tremadog, Caernarfonshire Thomas Edward Lawrence, who was born on 16 August 1888 , gained fame as a leader of an Arab revolt against the Ottoman Empire during World War One. A charismatic figure, Lawrence threw himself into Arabic culture to befriend and sympathise with his Arab partners and it was this ability to identify with the Arab peoples which made him a successful military leader. In later years, he wrote vividly about the incredible breadth and variety of his activities, gaining international fame as Lawrence of Arabia, a title popularized by the 1962 film based on his World War I activities. He was awarded the Companion of the Order of the Bath, the DSO. But modestly refused to be made a Knight Commander of the British Empire, saying of his achievements Ive been & am absurdly over-estimated. There are no supermen & Im quite ordinary, & will say so whatever the artistic results. In that point Im one of the few people who tell the truth about myself. On 19 May 1935, he was fatally injured in a motorbike crash in Dorset and Winston Churchill said of him I deem him one of the greatest beings alive in our time... We shall never see his like again. His name will live in history. It will live in the annals of war... It will live in the legends of Arabia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T._E._Lawrence
Posted on: Fri, 15 Aug 2014 23:10:00 +0000
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