Thomas Edward Lawrence was born on the 16th August 1888, in Wales. Interested in archaeology at a very early age, he spent the early years of his life exploring various historical places. When the first world war broke out, the British Army intelligence section recruited him where he carried out the role of Junior Officer in Egypt.
In October 1916, T E Lawrence was sent to meet with two crucial Arab leaders at Jiddah, a Saudi Arabian port situated on the Red Sea area. Here negotiations were held between Lawrence, Faisal ibn Ali and Nuri es-Said with the outcome being an agreement to help lead an Arab revolt against the Turkish Army. Just one month later, T E Lawrence became part of Feisal's forces in the role of a trusted Liaison Officer. It was at this point that he started to become known as Lawrence of Arabia.
July the following year, Lawrence and his men carried out raids on the Damascus-Medina railway as well as successfully capturing the port of Aqaba. November 1917 saw Lawrence part of a raiding party in Southern Syria against the Turkish in the hope of disrupting communications. However, he was captured by Turkish forces, tortured and raped, yet surprisingly, the very next day, old clothes were left for him and he was able to escape.
For some people, those experiences would be too much to continue, however, Lawrence then joined forces with Edmund Allenby and it was them that entered Damascus with their forces on the 1st October 1918.
Post-war, Lawrence attended the Paris Peace Conference alongside Prince Feisal and chose to wear traditional native dress, consisting of a long white robe and headdress. As the Paris Peace Conference came to a close, Lawrence felt that, after everything the Arabs had done to help win the war, they had been betrayed. The main course of this being the French becoming in charge of Syria, when the Arabs could have had this area themselves.
Lawrence achieved so much during the first world war but his story doesn't end there. In fact it continues for a quite a while, often causing controversy, until his tragic death.
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