Thomas Edward Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia)

(15.08.1888 - 19.05.1935)
. ... At the entrance stood konnogvardeytsy in gilt cuirass and helmets with white plumes, . for the palace door he was met by a court footman in livery of blue velvet, and led to the Minister of War: tightly knit, . squat, . like a young bulldog, Churchill gazed at his guest with undisguised sympathy.,
. The First World War ended recently, . and the stranger was one of its legends: Thomas Edward Lawrence, . in the past, the historian and archaeologist, . led uprising of nomadic Arab tribes, . to the nines defeated several fought with the British and Turkish armies began to Lawrence of Arabia,
. In two-plus years' temporary lieutenant-colonel became a translator, while Britain has kept tens of thousands of soldiers lives and millions of pounds - now the winner was supposed to get what he owed.

. After leaving office, but they went to the palace corridors: front - the guards in medieval costumes for her - the minister of war, short and ugly hero brought up the rear
. King - portly man in a general's uniform, with well-groomed sideburns and ribbon over his shoulder, drew his sword: Thomas Edward Lawrence has to kneel and stand up from the ground already, Sir Knight and Knight of the Bath. Through the stained glass flowed sun shined polished parquet floor, dimly glimmered wall carvings, gleaming weapons, sparkled braids dress uniforms ... The scene was so solemn ceremony, how vile look what happened a few months later in one of the backwoods army garrisons.

... Private Ross was the most awkward soldier throughout the battalion. Clumsy undersized object - in addition to all the disadvantages he was under thirty, and on the background of the young recruits he looked strange. Those who enlisted in the army, must know what is - and soldiers Ross patiently endured taunts and abuse of comrades-old lieutenant. He was distracted, and recoveries fell on him constantly - Ross week drail soldiers latrines, and its shape through stinking filth. Comrades in the barracks are not willing to tolerate: the night he made a "dark" and a broken rib. No sooner had Russia to withdraw from the hospital, as a lieutenant perpetrate dullard regular spacing - donkeys to work in quarries, and not to serve in the armor of His Majesty King George the Fifth.

. Ross, shame battalion, listening to an officer standing at attention at attention "
. Leaflet that had fallen from his pocket, finally brought the lieutenant of mental balance: he picked up the letter, read aloud the first lines - and was dumbfounded. Red as a lobster commander stared at the mine retained its dispassionate soldier: the owner of the prestigious journal "Belle Letrot" offered "dear Colonel Lawrence" place of the editor! Even without a week, the graduate school Sandherstskoe lieutenant knew, . that Colonel Lawrence in the British army only one ...,

. World War I, which ended several years ago, having debunked the myth of the heroes
. Tens of millions of people with head zaryvshihsya in filthy trenches, four years of pouring each other with lead, hounded by poisonous gases, and now no one could o6yasnit survivors, for which, in fact, it was all done. Lawrence of Arabia remained the only hero of the massacre - a hero in the old, covered with romantic horse attacks spirit. Thanks to his former subjects of the sultan had the shadow of liberty, and the First World - at least some moral justification: the Turkish provinces, where officials of the Sultan's worked all that they want, steel semi-independent European protectorate.

. The lieutenant stared and did not understand what to do (who does not supposed to show the subordinate that he was confused, but whether the lieutenant take his staff recruited to the ranks polkovnikaN)
. He was not alone: all those who tried to dispose of the fate of Lawrence of Arabia, sooner or later experienced the same amazement.

. His Royal and Imperial Majesty George the Fifth monarch's mouth opened wide - during the palace ceremony Lawrence rejected the Order of the Bath, and a knighthood
. ( "I am ashamed of the role for which he received these orders. On behalf of England, I gave certain promises, . and they are not met - perhaps, . I still have to fight with your Majesty! ") The minister of colonies widened eyes - Lawrence brilliantly executed several of his assignments, . saved England from a small colonial war and saved a budget of about twenty million pounds, . but from the chair of the State Secretary of the Ministry refused,
. ( "I can not accept your offer: Lawrence of Arabia did not owe them their well-deserved reputation, . and for Thomas Lawrence is morally akin to prostitution. ") Published by Lawrence grabbed his head: his book, . which would make the author a millionaire he issued his own expense, . on vellum of drawings, . freehand, . edition of 500 copies - and it devastated him cleaned.,

. Lawrence tried to teach, he lived barely make ends meet, and all interest in him grew, and journalists are not tired of writing about the feats and oddities Arabians
. Then he had disappeared and reappeared in a remote part of the military as a member of James Hume Ross. The public was intrigued, some thought he was strange, others - crazy. Mother of Colonel Lawrence, Sara knew: her son - a gene
"He was a genius" - so she said in the late thirties in Brighton, at the festive ceremony dedicated to the memory of Ned. Service Lawrence-Ross in a tank regiment by that time forgot. Since then, he managed to serve in aviation on the Afghan border under the name of ordinary Shaw (George Bernard Shaw was for him something like the adoptive father), . make one of the best in England prose translation Odyssey and develop a number of important improvements to torpedo boats,
. This was said by those who knew him in recent years. And the veterans of the war in the desert told of Lawrence-commander: his famous plan for guerrilla war, he pondered a good Greek language - in fact the only military authors, . which recognized a graduate of Oxford, . were Julius Caesar and Xenophon ...,

. The former head of the Royal Air Force, Air Marshal Trenchard Montaigu, Baron Volftonsky, said: "Lawrence - this is England, and Churchill gave in honor of his whole speech.
. - To prolong the world war for a year longer - he said - Lawrence could come in Constantinople at the head of the united tribes of Asia Minor and Arabia
. It could fulfill the dream of the young Napoleon: hardly Lawrence lacked any of the qualities needed to conquer the world. But the enemy had surrendered - and he was left out in the cold, absurd, like a prehistoric monster that washed ashore retreated wave. No matter how England may need these to him, the second such person is not destined to see it ...

He finished, raised his glass and sat down; present joined toast. Lumix stingy British sun, Brighton houses built of time-eaten stone, green ivy twined: the hero's mother thanked friends, a small, energetic and, in Churchill's words, "damn proud son of" a woman. The picture looked idyllic.

. Her son was born in 1888 and in 1935 he dived at full speed due to rotation of the rural road on a powerful motorbike, and saw in front of two boys, cyclists, abruptly turned the wheel - and died at a local hospital, never regaining consciousness
. Since then, the mystery over his beats than one generation of writers and historians: the actions of their character illogical, inexplicable nature, in the biography of too many gaps. And Sarah Lawrence would be a lot to explain to those who are attracted to the personality Arabians - if it wanted, if it knew that the doubts and fears, Ned, his whole destiny fashioned motherly hands.

. In 1879 she was the ward of the priest, the daughter of carpenter and died of alcoholic cirrhosis of the liver, went to the shore of Ireland
. Her place was waiting for a governess in the house of a wealthy landowner Thomas Chapman. Half-day bumps in the old surrey - and Sarah saw a long house of gray stone, . stuffed wheat barns, . stables with thoroughbred horses, . p, . where they lived half-tenants, . and down dale klyavshie estate owner and his wife, . quarrelsome Edith Chapman, . marriage which God punished Squire for all, . what he criticized.,

. Mr. Chapman belonged to the old landed aristocracy - his grandfather was a baronet, with time he should inherit this is not the loudest in the feudal hierarchy, but rather an honorary title
. However, on a brilliant aristocrat broken, losing themselves into drinking, flabby Thomas Chapman resembled little. The landlord was good, but lack of will, and his wife took to drink it before losing the human image.

. Hostess clock brought up his five daughters, a husband and his tenants - a matter of life lady felt the local treatment of Catholics in the true Anglican faith
. It looked like dressed in expensive clothes mop, and Sarah was a fresh face, lively blue eyes and tiny, like a child's hands and feet. The nurse became housekeeper, then the mistress of Mr and Mrs Chapman found out about it and put up a scandal to her husband, she was able to fend for themselves - Squire left and not giving him divorce his wife and began a new life. Mr. Chapman has turned into Mr. Lawrence: an Irish couple moved to England and settled there under the guise of living in a married family. Sarah has achieved what he wanted, and she was happy - but the feeling of heavy, irreparable sin to stay with her for life.

. "You'll be sorry twig - spoil the child": all five of her sons were brought up in a large rigor, . away from the girls, . Theater, . dances and other sinful pleasures, . in the sense of duty, . under the strict supervision of my mother (she was confident, . thus expiate his own guilt),
. In small, . neat tidy house reigned strict order - apples cut into four pieces and baked with skin and bones, . oatmeal cooked all night, . and the children were the joy and comfort to my mother - about the actions and desires of their children, Mrs. Lawrence knew everything.,
. Her main concern was Ned, Thomas Edward Lawrence: the most ugly, weak and very closed
. The four oldest sons acquitted maternal expectations. Mrs Lawrence is not wanted her boys got married - and Arnie did so only with her permission, and sturdy Bob and remained a bachelor.

. Bob became a missionary, and her mother went with him to China, later, England was old Sarah lived with her son in one house, and he hurried to her room every time, as soon as she banged a stick on the floor
. But Ned was never quite her child - he lived his life, which no one blew. Mrs Lawrence loved his youngest son and did not want to admit that he has never been clear to her - childhood Ned received a triple dose of the birch. Over time, he has full and absolute freedom - first from the mother, and then from the rest of the world. Mrs. Lawrence remembered how it started.

In 17 years of her adorable little boy ran away from home: in the morning his room was empty. Father and sons have ransacked all around, but Ned was not there. Mrs. Lawrence was crying - she found a note in it her baby, wrote that he had always dreamed about the army and home will not return.

Mr Lawrence found Ned. He got to the nearest part of the military and enlisted in the royal artillery. Father paid the fine army treasury and brought his son home. The boy lost weight and looked depressed: the army has been some not so. In the barracks, the guys from the common stupid jokes, fought and stank - Mrs. Lawrence realized that Ned and it felt like a stranger. But the more she did not dare lay claim to his soul - to this day the son got independence. Soon he moved to a separate house, which for him was built in the backyard. There, the future ruler of the desert lived as a hermit among his books and notes.

. Puny teenager travels throughout England on a bicycle and sketched ancient castles and knights tombstones - Ned Lawrence carried away by the Middle Ages, it became the ideal of the Templars
. Knights of the Temple lived in poverty and celibacy, their life was devoted to the fight and serving people. Templars fought for the Holy Sepulcher, guarded pilgrims and merchants' caravans and comply with the severe poverty: a vow of obedience, a vow of silence, twice a day - porridge made of emmer and a cloak room. Later, things changed - the history of the Order of completed charges of blasphemy, fortunetelling and sodomy, a scandalous trial and bonfires on the Pariser Platz. But the young Lawrence was not interested in the Templars, magicians and moneylenders: his ideals were fought in the name of the Lord ascetics, and he followed this ideal as forces.

At Oxford, Lawrence became a byword. Young historian lunch and dinner, winter swimming in ice-hole, in the summer drove up the hill on a bicycle, and the mountain carrying him on their shoulders. Happy Ned slept, and worked at night, reading three or four books or practicing shooting a revolver. Often couple rolling around in the twilight on the boat, shied away from the shots - Lawrence graciously waved to them from the shore steaming "Colt". He openly despised the sport, which in English universities of the XIX century was something of a second religion, but it was one of the first in the audience - his essays feature in-depth thought and style ... Even in his youth, Lawrence became a man, a mystery - many of his contemporaries claimed that this was something he wanted.

. Those who did not like the canonical version (Lawrence of Arabia - the last of the heroes of the XX century), regarded him as a grand hoax, the author of which he was
. They felt, . Lawrence - just a gifted manipulator, . who managed to accurately calculate the effects of each of its step: at the university, he attracted the attention of pestuya own strangeness, . matured, . turned his life into a sort of fairy tales "Thousand and One Nights.,

. All that really happened to Thomas Edward Lawrence, for his quick and brilliant pen acquired unforgettable colors
. Lawrence had a fantasy of the artist, . He turned to the adventure novel own lives - and those, . who considered him a liar banal, . not seen anything for this, . except the desire to play - once and for all the chosen role as, . to cause the greatest possible interest of the public,
. Beyond this idea remained Lawrence won the war in the desert, the book, which was called a masterpiece of English literature, voluntarily chose to live in polunischete, close the barracks, in which he himself locked up ... It got on the extreme pride and the desire to disappear, dissolve into a faceless mass. Friends were sure: if he really lived in the time of the Templars, it would have ended his days in a monastery with a very severe charter. But before the end of Lawrence, no one knew - everyone saw in him something of his own, and telling about Arabians, defended his own myth.

.
. Teacher, Lawrence, Professor Judd (together with Arabian went to his first archaeological expedition), in the late thirties, retired
. He got a lot of free time, and his lively interest in former pupil. The professor thought that in Lawrence, to revive the spirit of one who fought in Arabia medieval knights of the Temple. Was most amusing was the fact that, speaking of this, he built a chain of arguments.

Knight of the monastic order followed a set of rules, from which he could not retreat. Those, . someone with a spear and sword served the Lord in Syria and Mesopotamia, . there, . where many centuries later fought Lawrence of Arabia, . revered beautiful lady, . but rejected the sensual love, mortify, . valued honor above the glory, . and earthly wealth did not put a penny,
. Those who walked on this path, knew neither despair nor hope - and the life of Lawrence of Arabia fully meet the statute of the Knights of the Temple.

. He knew how to get along with women - was witty, courageous, affectionate, but as soon be just a hint of intimacy, as companion felt: between descend invisible barrier
. This side of life for him did not exist.

The only novel, Ned is known from the words of the girl, for which he once looked after: he was twenty-one, she - nineteen, and she was a daughter of one of the fathers of tenants. Once, when young people were left alone, Lawrence closed the door, ran up to Jenny and took her hand and asked him to become his wife. The girl burst out laughing - until then they never went talk of anything like, . Yes there: Ned never did not kiss her! Hearing laughter, . He embarrassed, . flushed, . released her hand and walked into the far corner of the room - more about that Lawrence is not talked, . moreover, . began to shun his girlfriend.,

. The Templars were engaged in self-torture: a chain mail they wore sackcloth and free from struggles and prayers being scourged brothers in the Order
. Lawrence hired a special person (his name was John Bruce), who seconds his huge whip - Bruce insisted that under the blows of its master sometimes experienced orgasm. Earthly glory knights despised - and Lawrence, who returned to the King and the Order of the title, confining itself to the army barracks in no way inferior to the noble lords, who were sleeping on bare ground, with holes in his cloak under his head ... Professor Judd developed a chain of analogies and more: the Templars despised women, but did not reject the love of brothers in the Order - including the Knights of the Temple, it was considered sacred, and hence his former pupil had to be a homosexual. However, serious people do not take into account the conclusions of Professor. Among the skeptics was an old acquaintance of Lawrence, a former Minister Winston Churchill, who earns lectures on England XX century. Professors inventions seemed existent delusions - he talked a lot with Mrs. Lawrence, was familiar with the brothers, Colonel, his associates and fellow Oxford. What the scientist trying to understand her husband, in his opinion, had a different explanation.

. According to Mrs. Lawrence, Ned was a very shy boy: he envied tall and strong brothers, ashamed of his clumsiness, and therefore shy away from girls, to whip him as she taught
. The mother had been flogged in vain How much is stubborn, and he used to and even began to find pleasure in this. Churchill, listening to Mrs. Lawrence, I thought that way her son was tempered his will.

For Mrs. Lawrence Ned always remained her boy - a weak and unsure of himself. Those who remember, and England argued about who was for Mrs. Lawrence stranger, unrelated to her child. Thomas Edward Lawrence was buried in the Cathedral. Marble sarcophagus like a knight gravestones, only instead of a sword wrapped in a cloak Arab warrior clutching a dagger in the hands of the curve. It was not her son - real Ned remained forever with her. But why he went to the edge of the world and could not find peace until his death, Mrs Lawrence did not come up.

She could not imagine that perfectly understood highbrow son's friends, writers, philosophers, university professors. They were clear, . that Lawrence, . modest historian and archaeologist, . temporary lieutenant-translator, . officer butterfingers, . paraded in uniform, . red tie and patent leather shoes on an evening dress, . irritating his bosses Oxford manners, . in the desert was an ideal soldier,
. Cold, calculating and ruthless - the way and should be the winner
. Many contemporaries of Lawrence had to kill and send people to death: Churchill during World commanded a rifle battalion, . soldiers of this war were Aldington, . Hemingway, . Dos Pazos, . Faulkner, . but none of them failed to dispose of their own destiny as, . as Lawrence - that demand special, . cold obsession,
. Arabian she possessed, and his friends had little doubt that the tragic and dramatic final scene, which hit the headlines of the world, was not accidental. And that's not the fault of the people whom he killed, and the sensation of exhaustion of its own role. In the sense of satiety, and fatigue of the hero and the plot, familiar to any writer.

This idea must have come to Lawrence at night, when he, an ordinary technician Royal Air Force, turned on a cot in the barracks Miranshe near Afghan border. Listened to the buzzing wind, catching the wall clouds of disgusting rustling sand, Colonel Lawrence (he is an ordinary show - this time Arabian hid from the world under that name) recalls his childhood.

. Once he told his father: "I'll grow up and become king of the Arabs" - and almost achieved this: the King Faisal gave him a golden dagger and the title of emir
. In school, he dreamed of a knight's exploits - and he managed to become in the last knight: and Roland, and Don Quixote of the XX century at a time, but one thing for which he fought, it was a lie. Student at Oxford dreamed of the glory of the writer - but his book, written and refined, and delight connoisseurs of style and content was of secondary importance, and the author understood it better than others. He never found a woman's love: a mother, who became for him the embodiment of femininity, taught his son to be afraid of family and do not believe women. Little Ned spent a lot of forces out to get rid of its influence. But Colonel Lawrence was unable to overcome fostered in early childhood phobia ... He had nothing except his own: the life of Lawrence of Arabia was the best of the books he had written.

. Oh, how he managed to create a plot, as brilliantly lived this life, but in her style and sense! Show soldier lay round eyes and remembered King
. He remembered the stunned journalists, who said he agreed to become a colonel just for the sake of the war to return to England in the first-class compartment. How much greatness - and how much humility, . What an intriguing beginning and what is this book may be a brilliant finale! When the time comes, . he would bring the story to its logical conclusion, . adds a last paragraph and put a spectacular point - at the right time and in the right place.,

. The next morning, raised a company of six hours
. Private Shaw ran the machine-gun belts, stood near the airfield. In the barracks waiting for his unfinished translation of the Iliad "(Lawrence hoped to earn a little) and a letter from his mother, to which he was going to reply for several days.

. One, two, one-two: recruits marching in step, singing about Tipperary and sweet Jenny - Private Show is a column in the dining room perfectly smooth systems
. Private Shaw smiles - in recent years it has become much calmer, its existence regain a lost sense of it: not a good life should adorn a good death, thanks to his book will acquire the depth and completeness. Where no hurry to dispose of God, man intervenes, and the descendants still do not know that at the last moment Lawrence of Arabia, slightly pulled the card.
Perhaps this was so, and may otherwise. Of course, Mrs. Lawrence and minds did not allow anything like that, but those who trust in Lawrence - Churchill, Bernard Shaw, Air Marshal Trenchard, HG Wells - it was inclined to this version. They knew the price and successfully construct the plot, and the glory - when Lawrence returned to England, bought a powerful motorcycle, his friends immediately suspected something. They thought that the Arabian sooner or later break his neck: Lawrence rushed for rural roads at a breakneck speed on the fly, avoiding the oncoming cars and fat Devonshire cows.
. ... Because of the regular rotation emerged two boys, cyclists, . and Lawrence of Arabia learned in them their fate: they are rapidly approaching, . one - a large cap in brown cells, . second chewing grass, . and his face is stupid, . as a deserter from the Young-Arab, . which he shot seventeen years ago,
. Lawrence turned the wheel sharply and flew up: as a boy he dreamed about the exploits of the Templars, and managed to think that way, perhaps, felt knocked out of the saddle knight ... In the eyes of the dark, he heard the crunch of his own bones, and in the book that all his life, wrote Lawrence of Arabia, was delivered last point.