The story of T.E.Lawrence, Lawrence of Arabia, continues to fascinate 82 years after his death. Famously, he died in a motorcycle accident while riding his cherished Brough Superior SS100. Lawrence’s war exploits and his love of Arab culture are well documented, yet he ended the war severely disappointed. His leadership had helped defeat the Ottoman Turks but he had failed in his dream of securing a homeland for the Arabs. Disillusioned, he refused the Order or the Bath and Distinguished Service Order, leaving King George V, The Queen’s grandfather, holding the boxes.
Lawrence continued his writing and his support of the Arab cause, eventually becoming a fellow of All Souls, Oxford. In 1921, Winston Churchill recruited him as an advisor on Arab affairs and he attended a conference in Cairo where he realised at least some of his ambitions for the region.
But he was deadly bored by all this attention. He decided to make a dramatic about-turn in his life, partly prompted by his new-found love of aircraft. Forsaking fame and fellowship, he joined the RAF as a basic squaddie under the assumed name of John Hume Ross. Unfortunately the press soon discovered the ruse and he had to leave the service, enlisting a year later as Private T.E.Shaw in the Royal Tank Corps. However, he was very unhappy and was driven almost to suicide before he was allowed a transfer back to the Royal Air Force. It is quite possible Churchill himself had an influence on the decision.
Lawrence’s fascination with aircraft and machinery in general led to a long association with George Brough and his Brough Superior motorcycles, manufactured in Nottingham between 1919 and 1940.
When I worked for The Motor Cycle magazine in the 1960s, the Brough-Superior was long gone but continued to occupy an almost mystical status in the lore of motorcycling. My colleague Vic Willoughby, the technical editor, told lurid stories of riding Broughs before the war; and an earlier colleague, H.D.Teague, whom I never met, had dubbed the Brough as the “Rolls Royce of Motorcycles”.
Lawrence became a leading light in the Brough world and owned a succession of seven models throughout the 1920s and 1930s, including the fabled SS100, the 1000cc flagship of which only 383 examples were manufactured in its 16-year life. This beast was powered by a massive v-twin engine manufactured either by JAP (J.A.Prestwich of Tottenham) or Matchless of Woolwich. It was on the latest of these machines that Lawrence was fatally injured not far from his cottage near Wareham in Dorset. He died six days later on 19 May 1935 at the age of 46.
At the time of his death he was waiting for the delivery of his eighth Brough, another SS100. This machine, which would have cost him around £180 had he lived to take delivery, is now in the Imperial War Museum in London.
Some amazing facts regarding a true hero Te Lawrence and Winston Churchill, you deg many of these to the pound !!
I thought the inquest was at the hospital where he died. The story as recounted in brief by StephenJ sounds like a typical conspiracy theory… Churchill as the villain, mysterious black car, witnesses threatened or bribed, witness either takes own life in guilt and remorse or else he was murdered by M.!.5. A large handful of salt is needed to swallow this.
More interesting and completely true is that the assistant surgeon who worked on Lawrence was so upset by what he considered a needless head injury that he worked to convince the army that their motorcyclists should be obliged to wear protective headgear. He started the movement to encourage and persuade motorcyclists that their heads were worth protecting. Later, as you know, we were all obliged by law to act sensibly. I prefer to remember TEL’s death as the seed of an idea that has saved countless lives rather than as the culmination of a conspiracy.
If you want to know what he was like at Bovington, I commend a chapter in Tinned Soldier.
Stuart Tallack
Lawrence did not die in Hospital , he died in a small army first aid post at Bovington Camp , it is said that he was kept there for the six odd days it took to die , My Father who was stationed at Bovington at the time confirmed this fact and that the post has four armed guards placed on it
A fascinating story Mike, but one that does not ring entirely true…
Look around yon interweb and there are plenty of stories regarding Lawrence’s "accident" and an erratically driven black car that ran Lawrence of the road. There were four witnesses to this black car, two cycling boys, who Lawrence is supposed to have been trying to avoid when he pranged, a delivery driver and an off duty soldier in a field.
Here is one: http://www.criminalelement.com/blogs/2013/04/the-murder-of-lawrence-of-arabia-tony-hays
The boys were not permitted to attend the inquest, and of the other two, the soldier "died" shortly after the inquest.
So the Brough SS100 might be totally innocent in this affair!
Are you aware of this site?
http://www.telstudies.org
No, I wasn’t, but it is interesting. There’s a ton of stuff on the internet about Lawrence but I was mainly focusing on his enthusiasm for motorcycles. Thanks for bringing it to our attention, though.
As a youngster I used to cycle from Derby to the Brough works in Nottingham in the hope of seeing a Brough Superior motorcycle coming into or leaving the works. Many years later I too managed to buy one and eventually owned a very rare OHV 680cc Black Alpine followed by several 1000cc SS80’s and finally one of the last ever 1000cc SS100’s which I later loaned long term to The Brooklands Museum, that was until I got a email one day to tell me the river Mole had burst its banks, the museum had been flooded, and my beloved Brough SS100 was now under several feet of water! Don Morley (Hon President The Association Of Pioneer Motorcyclists).
PS. The 1150 Sidecar outfit featured still belongs to a member of manufacturer George Brough’s family.
Don, while I was aware of your motorcycling background as well are your career in photo journalism, I hadn’t appreciated the depth of your enthusiasm for Brough Superior. Thank you for all the additional information, particularly confirming that the picture is of an 1150 sidecar outfit. Sorry about your Brough — was it recoverable in any way or did the Brooklands insurance pay up? I well remember the flood which resulted in the museum being closed for almost a year. Interesting, too, to read that the pictured Brough is still owned by a member of the family.