15. An Assault That Wreaked Havoc on Lawrence of Arabia’s Psyche
In November, 1917, T.E. Lawrence was captured by the Turks while spying out one of their positions in Arab garb. His captors flogged, tortured, and assaulted him before he managed to escape. The experience left physical scars, as well as psychic wounds that never healed. For a man already struggling with his self-identity and his peers’ acceptance or lack thereof because he was gay, the assault intensified his inner torment by orders of magnitude. It did not stop him from returning to the revolt, however. With Lawrence’s assistance, the Arab forces discomfited the Turks, tied down a significant part of their military strength behind the lines in security operations, and helped bring about the final Turkish defeat.
After the war, the Allies betrayed the Arabs, reneged on their promises of independence, and divvied up most of the Middle East amongst themselves instead. Disillusioned, Lawrence returned to Britain, where he lobbied in vain for Arab independence. He also wrote his memoirs, The Seven Pillars of Wisdom, which flew off the bookshelves, became an international best seller, and transformed Lawrence, already famous, into a bona fide legend. To escape the public glare, he enlisted under an assumed name as an ordinary airman in the Royal Air Force, and then as a private soldier in the British Army, from 1922 to 1935. He left the service in 1935, with plans for early retirement to his dream home, only to die soon thereafter in a motorcycle accident.