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T E
Lawrence
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Portrait of Lawrence by Kennington |
In January 1921 when Winston Churchill was at
the Colonial Office he invited Colonel T E
Lawrence to be an adviser on Arab affairs.
Towards the end of January Lawrence was
appointed to the Middle East Department, which
he joined on 17 February. His first task was to
plan the agenda for the Cairo Conference which
began on 12 March and lasted a fortnight. After
the conference Lawrence travelled widely in the
Middle East throughout April, mainly by air,
before returning to England. Lawrence left
England again on 8 July, presumably by sea, as
he arrived in Jeddah on 29 July. |
He spent about a fortnight there to try to negotiate a
British settlement with King Abdullah. Lawrence left
Jeddah on 12 August, probably in a coastal steamer,
destination Aden. This was during Ramadan and he may
have decided to leave Jeddah until Ramadan was over.
It is not known when Lawrence landed in Aden, but his
departure date was 25 August – so he was there for
around 10 days. To ‘earn his keep’ he also did a
reconnaissance of the terrain around Lahej, ‘to assess
the suitability of the terrain for armoured cars’. This
was all arranged by the residency and he was accompanied
by Major Reilly, at that time the 2nd
Assistant. (See Sir
Bernard Reilly).
The pair travelled out on the motor coach which left
Maalla Station at 0645 on the 21st. The
original plan had been to take the morning train – but
perhaps there were no trains on Sundays, as the 21st
was a Sunday. A residency car had been pre-positioned at
Lahej, the Sultan having been asked to provide
accommodation for the driver, as well as being informed
that Lawrence was visiting the Lahej area. He replied
via the stationmaster at Sheikh Othman who telephoned
the residency to the effect that ‘Colonel Lawrence and
Major Reilly would be
gladly received and highly welcome’. The car drove
around Lahej, as well as carrying out the reconnaissance
which was expected to be towards Am Rija and also to
Shudshaif; during the reconnaissance the Sultan was
asked to provide a mounted escort. There is no record of
Lawrence having called on the Sultan. The two officers
returned to Aden on the motor coach which left Lahej at
1740 that afternoon.
What Lawrence got up to during the remainder of his time
in Aden is not known but whilst in Aden he wrote the
lengthy preface to the catalogue of an exhibition of
Arab portraits by Eric Kennington to be held at the
Leicester Galleries in London later that year.
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As has been mentioned Lawrence left Aden on 25
August, aboard HMS Clematis, the
Station Ship
at Aden. Built as a minesweeping sloop of the
Flower Class in 1915 the Clematis and others of
her class were used post-war as colonial
gunboats and station ships. |
HMS Clematis |
The ship called briefly at Hodeida
for 2 hours so that Lawrence
could have a talk with Captain Muhammad Fazluddin, who
was acting as the British envoy to al-Ildrisi. Fazluddin
had been warned by telegram to be ready to go aboard the
Clematis as soon as she anchored off Hodeida. The
Clematis then went to Kamaran
where she arrived late afternoon of
the 26th, but in time for a bathing party to go ashore
for a couple of hours before sunset.
The Clematis left Hodeida
around midday on the 27th, anchoring off Jeddah
mid-morning of the 29th. On arrival the Clematis fired a
21-gun salute in honour of King Abdullah, the salute
being returned by the shore battery. The Clematis left
Hodeida for Port Sudan on the afternoon of the 31st.
Major Reilly accompanied Lawrence on the Clematis.
History does not relate as to whether this was done out
of courtesy or to keep an eye on him! |
