16. From T.E. Lawrence to Lawrence of Arabia
T.E. Lawrence was greatly impacted by inner struggles. As a recent biographer put it: “He was illegitimate and he was affected badly when he became aware of it. He had questions about who he was … There were questions about whether he was ‘normal’ because he was gay. He was a repressed homosexual and developed sado-masochistic disorder“. When the Great War began in 1914, Lawrence joined the British War Office as a civilian employee, and prepared militarily useful maps of the Middle East. Sent to Cairo, his knowledge of the region and fluency in Arabic proved valuable to the war effort. He interviewed Turkish POWs and agents operating behind enemy lines, and gained considerable knowledge of Turkish military positions and strengths. In 1916, he was sent to Arabia, where Hussein ibn Ali, the ruler of Mecca and the surrounding region, had raised an Arab revolt against his Turkish overlords.
Lawrence urged his superiors to back the Arabs, and make use of their aspirations for independence to further the British war effort. His advice was heeded, and Lawrence joined the Arab Revolt as a political and liaison officer. That was when his legend took off, and he was transformed from T.E. Lawrence to Lawrence of Arabia. Lawrence helped organize the Arab tribesmen into an effective guerrilla force that operated behind Turkish lines in hit-and-run attacks that blew up vital rail lines, destroyed bridges, and raided enemy supplies. Lawrence, the historian, archaeologist, and scholar, discovered a knack for guerrilla warfare. He set an example with his own courage when the tribesmen’s spirits flagged, bribed their cynical leaders with gold when they lost heart, and kept the rebellion going.