INTRODUCTION


Colonel Stewart Francis Newcombe was already a legend in the deserts of Arabia before he was joined in Cairo during the early months of the First World War by a group of extraordinary specialists in Middle Eastern affairs. One member of this group was T.E. Lawrence who went on to achieve worldwide fame. Colonel Newcombe's story, like those of other unsung figures in the Anglo-Arabian panoply, has been eclipsed by the legend of ´Lawrence of Arabia´, and has languished in the dusty recesses of regimental records, government files or in the elliptical words of Lawrence’s book Seven Pillars of Wisdom. However, S.F. Newcombe´s untold story is there to be told. IN THE SHADOW OF THE CRESCENT is a story of extraordinary exploits and courage, coupled with Newcombe's own legendary and inexhaustible supply of energy and of remarkable adventures under the very noses of the Ottoman authorities – full of danger, intrigue and perhaps more surprisingly, of romance during Newcombe's captivity in Turkey.

Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Auction results

Results just in! The cream silk desert robe belonging to T.E. Lawrence has sold for £3000 plus auction fees. 

Serab runner - £1700
The second Lawrence item was a serab runner, NW Persia 1890, an ivory field with four gul and flowerhead filled medallions, 154 x 32.5in.
Estimate £300-500

This lot was sold with a letter of provenance from the vendor whose parents were close friends of T.E. Lawrence and the Lawrence family and two photographs showing the interior of a Middle eastern room bedecked with carpets. The carpet was given by T.E. Lawrence to the vendor's father as a wedding present around 1914, and the event is mentioned p.198, The Home Letters of T.E.Lawrence, Blackwell, 1954. 

This has sold for £1700 plus auction fees.

Auction of T.E. Lawrence's silk robes

This morning the following lot will be auctioned at Gorringes Auction Sale in Lewes, East Sussex, England. It seems a low estimate but perhaps it has been set to provoke some interest. The same robe, along with a carpet that Lawrence brought back from Aleppo in about 1914 for a wedding gift for a family friend and which is also included in this sale, was first presented at Sotheby's Fashion auction in 1999. At that time it was set at £8,000-12,000. 
A cream silk desert robe belonging to T.E. 'Lawrence of Arabia,' c.1916, of simple form with silk thread buttons and plaited loop fastenings, the cuffs edged with silk braid, fully lined with an internal hanging cord stamped in black ink H157 and another woven label embroidered 150, along with a large black and white photograph of Lawrence, and numerous other photographs and newspaper clippings, robe length 110cm. Estimate £1,500-2,000

This lot is sold with a note of provenance from the vendor whose parents were close friends of T.E. Lawrence and the Lawrence family, and a collection of letters from T.E. Lawrence's brother to Mrs Hutchins.

Sunday, November 9, 2014

NOVEMBER 1914 – THE ANZACS SET SAIL


Before Turkey entered the war on the side of the Central Powers on 29 October 1914 and four weeks before Newcombe and Lawrence were ordered to Cairo in support of the Allied move to protect Egypt and the Suez Canal, a massive mobilisation of Colonial troops was already underway, a great gathering of troops and materiel from every corner of the Empire. 

During those early months of the war in the Middle Eastern theatre, Egypt was flooded with colonial soldiers who had readily answered the call to arms. They gathered in makeshift transit camps en route to the bloody stalemate that was unfolding on the Western Front or to be dispatched locally to guard the Suez Canal and its approaches. Many more would be sent off to train in three large camps around Cairo to await their turn on the beaches and slopes of Gallipoli. The largest contingent was the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, who for shorthand became better known by their initials. The new word this acronym formed was so obvious that the full stops were omitted and ANZAC entered the military lexicon and into the annals of war. 

Kangaroo mascot at Mena Camp


On the other side of the world the small but strategically important port town of Albany, Western Australia, had been chosen to host the largest assembly of men and materiel the country had ever witnessed. Its natural harbour, home to a thriving whaling industry, was the most obvious starting point for such an endeavour. Riding at anchor for five clear days out in the Southern Ocean in the protected waters of King George Sound and in Princess Royal Harbour, sat thirty-eight ships of the fleet waiting to embark upon a journey across the world and into history. The thirty-thousand troops and seven-thousand five-hundred horses had been gathered from across the young nation, full of optimism and pride in their massive undertaking on behalf of the ‘old country’. The federation of six Australian colonies was only fourteen years old but they came to help their mates ‘fight the Hun in Europe’. 
 
Ships bunkering in Princess Royal Harbour

For weeks the troops had been assembling in their thousands on ships that came in ones and twos and threes, till at last all the fleet was gathered. The lucky ones were those on ships close to the wharves as they were able to carry on with short route-marches on shore to keep active, the envy of those placed farther out in the Sound. On Sunday, 1 November 1914, as a grey dawn rose over the town, the long wait was finally over. Andrew Barton Paterson, who went by the pseudonym ‘Banjo’ after the name of his favourite horse and who was already one of Australia’s most celebrated poets and balladist, was aboard the Euripides and recorded the moment for The Sydney Morning Herald:


‘The only sign of life is the column of smoke pouring from each funnel, and this alone it is that tells us that Australia’s greatest maritime adventure is about to put out to sea. Each ship seems to stand out double her natural size, every spar and rope showing clearly outlined against a rosy sky.’ 

All eyes were turned to the flagship of the fleet waiting for a signal. At 6.25am, as a red sun rose behind Breaksea Island creating a sharp silhouette of its convict-built lighthouse, two escort ships, Sydney and Minotaur, silently weighed anchor and moved out past Breaksea and Michaelmas Islands. Thirty minutes later these ‘two grim, gliding leviathans, going majestically out to sea to take their places as guardians of the fleet’ were followed by the ships carrying the First Australian Division. As they passed the New Zealand ships waiting their turn to depart they were saluted with the old Maori war cry of "Ake, Ake, Ake, Kia Kaha!" - Forever! And ever! Be strong!
 
Albany, Western Australia
Then division by division, in a carefully orchestrated procession, set sail into the eye of the sun with all transports clear of the harbour by 8:53am. As each ship left the security of the Sound the volunteers watched as the townsfolk of Albany lined the shores, with many climbing the peaks of Mount Clarence and Strawberry Hill to bid farewell to the brave young men embarking on their long journey to the battlefields of Europe or the Middle East. The Turkish peninsula of Gallipoli was where the legend of ANZAC was born out of the horrors of a war that was to be on a scale never before imagined. Their adventure was to turn the federation of colonies into a proud and respected nation. For so many of the men, the beautiful soft green hills surrounding the bay of Albany would be their last sight of Australia. 


ALBANY 2014 – THE CENTENARY

Centenary memorials have been taking place in Albany this November. You can now visit the new $10.6 million National Anzac Centre located within the Albany Heritage Park, which includes the Princess Royal Fortress, the Desert Mounted Corp Memorial, Padre White Lookout, and the Avenue of Honour. The Centre was officially opened on 1 November 2014 by both Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott and New Zealand Prime Minister John Key.  The Centre is a show-piece for the Anzac Centenary and will provide a unique opportunity for people to experience an emotional connection with the men and women who were involved in the First World War, understanding the sacrifice that they, their friends and families, made on behalf of their nation and its allied nations. The Centre is also accessible via the internet and highlights the significant role Albany played in the creation of the Anzac Spirit.


Visit The National Anzac Centre in Albany or online.

National Anzac Centre, Albany


For more details on Albany’s Anzac role visit Anzac Albany



Sunday, August 31, 2014

On this day - 31 August 1914


THE RETREAT FROM MONS 1914

During the opening months of the war, Stewart Newcombe’s skills were needed not in Arabia but in France where the British Expeditionary Force (B.E.F.) had landed in August 1914 in support of the French war plan. With no prior knowledge or involvement in the development of French strategic aims, the British forces soon became tied down in a faulty strategy that was beset with misunderstandings and doomed from the start.

With great credit, the French army had been largely reconstructed and reorganised following the disastrous Battle of Sedan in 1870, which had seen its army and its last emperor, Napoleon III, captured during the Franco-Prussian War. Remodelled on German lines of conscription, France adopted a decentralised approach to recruitment and training. At the start of the First World War, it had mobilised nearly 4 million men into 47 divisions under its Commander-in-Chief, General Joffre. By the end of the war it would call up over twice that number, including nearly half a million colonial troops. Its original battle scheme, Plan XVII, was pitted against Germany’s Schlieffen Plan and unfortunately it came largely undone in the opening moves which saw the German army invade France through Belgium, a move that the French was convinced would not happen due to the British treaty guaranteeing Belgium neutrality, the so-called “scrap of paper” as Germany insisted on belittling the agreement. France was outwitted and out of position having focussed too heavily on retaking Alsace Lorraine which had been in German hands since 1871. Thereafter, it was a matter of reorganisation and redeployment, reacting to the unique conditions of a modern war, with huge armies supported by new technology ultimately leading to stalemate and bloody attrition during four years of static trench warfare.

The British mobilise

Within days of mobilisation, Newcombe took command of the 8th R.E. Railway Company, one of two regular companies based at the Longmoor Military Camp in Hampshire which were responsible for maintaining and providing the British Army with its railway transportation requirements. His second-in-command was Captain E. Woodhouse who by the end of the war would become Assistant Director of Railways at the War Office. With 30 tons of technical stores to be transported across to Le Havre in France, the Railway companies were allocated just five days in which to mobilise in readiness for embarkation.

When their ship reached Le Havre 8th Company found they had very little to do as a prior agreement meant that the French were tasked with carrying out anything to do with railway transport in support of the original expeditionary force. Spending two or three days here and there, Newcombe’s company criss-crossed the country by train with very little substantive work to occupy them. Woodhouse later recalled that Newcombe was only with the company for a short time after they reached France, ‘but was a most valuable advance agent; without him I think it is doubtful whether we would have got any railway jobs to do.’

After settling his men to whatever useful projects he could find, Newcombe’s impatience led him to seek out work more suited to his own individual skills. Ahead of him, the ensuing difficulties encountered by the B.E.F. in the face of aggressive manoeuvres by the Germans were quickly leading to general disarray within the British forces. It was a fast-moving and volatile situation and one that Newcombe relished for the opportunity to get in at the thick of the action.  

The retreat of the B.E.F. from Mons to the Marne at the end of August 1914 called for the destruction of several key river crossings. Eager to be involved in any action after weeks of camp duties, Newcombe positioned himself in the vanguard of the retreat to assist in slowing up the advancing enemy. 

The Great Retreat 1914

A continuous crescendo of guns accompanied the weary retreat of the British Expeditionary Force as it stumbled down the roads of Northern France under a blazing summer sun. During the thirteen days of retreat it has been estimated that the infantry averaged about four hours sleep in twenty-four, and the cavalry only three. General Edmund Allenby was the Commander of the Cavalry Division, consisting of four Cavalry brigades, with two brigades of horse artillery and a field squadron of Royal Engineers and signallers. The cavalry’s role, traditional in any retreat, was to hold up the advancing enemy forces where mobility and endurance were best suited to a rearguard action. As events unfolded, Allenby became hard pressed to deal with the confused and ever-changing military situation as well as the difficulty of the terrain which included a dense impenetrable forest laying diagonally across his line of retreat. This had the effect of forcing the cavalry closer into the flanks of the German columns leaving little room for manoeuvre.

Inevitably, mistakes were made but Allenby remained resolute in his own abilities and in those of his men and horses who were continually in action, either occupying rearguard positions or under heavy shell fire. Unable to engage in close combat where their superiority would have told, the British cavalry withstood a steady barrage from long-range enemy guns and became somewhat scattered as a result. A constant stream of men, horses and guns made their way south along the rutted tracks and roads, their backs to the enemy and closing doors where possible behind them. 

The bridge at Compiegne

One line of retreat across the magnificent stone bridge at Compiegne was to be permanently closed by the Royal Engineers in a spectacular demolition that would prove to be a classic example of the art of bridge blowing. Following a request by the French the demolition was ordered to take place on the morning of August 31, allowing time for the Commander-in-Chief to evacuate his headquarters which were in the town. The imperial architecture of Compiegne confirmed its status as a royal town strategically located on the River Oise at the heart of the Picardy region and a vital crossing point for the retreating armies emerging from the cover of the surrounding forests. It was in these same forests that Jeanne d’Arc was captured in 1430 by the Burgundians while attempting to free the town before she was herself sold to the English. The Imperial Palace of Compiegne was where the royal entourage of Napoléon III and the Empress Eugenie held their summer court to the delight of their eclectic guest lists which included the great writers, artists and musicians of the day. The young Ned Lawrence - as T.E. Lawrence was known to his family - was also familiar with the town and would have crossed its bridge just six years before on one of his long bicycle tours of France in search of castles while studying medieval military architecture as part of his History degree at Oxford. On this late summer’s day, remnants of the British army streamed through the town as the statuettes at the top of the tower of the 16th Century L’Hôtel de Ville struck continually on the quarter-hour, marking a constant and rhythmic toll to accompany the weary footfall of the retreating army. 

Compiegne Bridge in happier times

Lieutenant B. K. Young of the 9th Field Company, accompanied by his section Sergeant and eight sappers on bicycles, arrived at 5p.m. on the 30th to prepare the bridge, calculating that it would require a charge of two and a half tons of gun-cotton for the haunches of each arch. As the bridge at Compiegne had three arches supported by two massive piers it would prove extremely fortunate when only one ton of explosive could be found supplemented by a ton of French melinite. While they made their preparations Young remained unaware that he had made a gross miscalculation.

Brigadier-General Fowke arrived on the scene soon after, accompanied by Captain Newcombe. Together with Young they inspected the site and Newcombe was left in charge of the preparations which would have to be carried out throughout the coming night. A French officer handed Newcombe a set of plans of the bridge which indicated where the demolition chambers had been placed, a feature of many bridges in the region. Newcombe set the sappers to work in removing the pavé setts to expose the chambers, of which there were three in each pier, each one 18 inches in diameter and 30 feet deep, going well below the water line. It was into these cramped chambers that the explosives had to be placed, a dangerous task that Newcombe elected to personally undertake. As he could not bend his body in the narrow shaft his team lowered him by rope into each of the six chambers in turn with 400lbs of gun-cotton tied up in sandbags and with three slabs prepared with primers and detonators in each bag. He then tamped these into position with his feet. About a hundred pounds of melinite was added as a sort of insurance for each charge, and finally a layer of three sandbags filled with gravel to complete the filling. The work was long and arduous and it was daybreak on the morning of the 31st August when the fuzes and leads, prepared by Young, were finally placed across the pavé, two sets of each, in grooves which were then filled with sand and gravel. 

A lucky escape!

Throughout this preparation the roadway had to be kept open for endless lines of traffic escaping the oncoming German army. All through the night a steady stream of over-laden vehicles of every kind crossed the bridge unaware that Newcombe and his men were working below in the darkness. But by dawn all was ready. Despite his exhaustion, Newcombe sent the Sergeant and the sappers back to find their company taking with them the surplus gun-cotton, while he remained behind with Young to blow the bridge. After all his hard work he was not prepared to miss the fruits of his labour. 


British Cavalry passing through Compiegne

The orders were that the demolition was to be made as soon as all the cavalry had crossed. Finally, at 11 a.m. a message was received from General Allenby saying that his division was clear. Newcombe brushed seniority to one side and gave the honour to Lieutenant Young who wasted no time in attaching the wooden handle to the exploder. Newcombe made one last check, running his eyes along the lines of fuzes which ran from the box and fanned out across the bridge before disappearing into the demolition chambers. At last, he nodded his satisfaction as Young prepared to press home the charge.

WW1 Exploder Box

Just at that moment, as Young pushed down on the ‘T’ shaped plunger, a car full of fleeing refugees raced onto the unguarded bridge, hurtling towards the two startled engineers and into imminent danger. As the plunger buried itself up to the hilt in the blasting box, a miracle occurred and the explosion failed, the fuzes not detonating. The car raced off the end of the bridge and disappeared into the town, the occupants unaware of how close they came to an almost certain death. The two men, baffled but immensely relieved by the mishap, ignored the usual rule of leaving a half an hour delay in returning to the scene and set to immediately. Within a few moments the alternative six foot fuze did its job – but all too suddenly, burning rapidly in only 30 seconds, the enclosed flame racing along its length without heed to the safety margins set by the two sappers. This time the effect was spectacular. Newcombe and Young watched in amazement as the whole structure simply vanished in almost complete silence, with the result that there was little debris showing above the water line and no damage to the windows or structure of two hotels, the Hôtel Du Pont-Neuf and the Hôtel de Flandre, which were situated a few metres from either end of the bridge. 

Newcombe's handiwork

It was later described with some pride in the History of the Corps of the Royal Engineers as one of the cleanest demolitions of the war. In its typically unflappable tone, belying the inherent dangers and the possibility of a calamitous outcome, the Journal was pleased to announce: ‘The happy escape of the refugee car, followed by the complete success of the demolition, was a sufficiently satisfying climax to a very hard night’s work.’

Turkey enters the war
 
Early on the morning of 29th October 1914 Turkey formally entered the war on the side of Germany when its fleet attacked the Russian Black Sea ports of Sebastopol, Theodosia, Novorossiysk and Odessa. It took two days for the rumours to be confirmed during which a twelve hour deadline expired offering a final olive branch to the Turkish Government requesting them to dismiss German naval and military missions and pull back from the brink of war. It was a futile hope and at 5.05p.m on 31 October, the order went out from the Admiralty to all ships, ‘Commence hostilities at once against Turkey.’ The Ottoman Empire would not live to see another day of peace.

With Turkey now in the war Newcombe’s role on the Western Front was over, for the time being. After settling matters with the 8th Railway Company he returned to London to complete his Sinai and Palestine maps and reports, sharing the same offices as T.E. Lawrence in the M.O.4 department at the War Office in Whitehall. Lawrence was now busy preparing the maps and the reports on the Wilderness of Zin and the Sinai Peninsula for printing. On 3 December 1914, Lawrence informed W.J. Crace, the Honorary Secretary of the Palestine Exploration Fund that he and Newcombe had been ‘uncomfortably busy’ wrapping up their affairs before heading out to the East.

On 9 December, Newcombe and Lawrence set off across France by train to the port of Marseilles and the quayside at La Joliette from where the Messageries Maritime steamships departed for the East. Taking a 2nd Class passage to Port Said they reached Cairo on Tuesday 15 December where they were later joined by other specialists in Middle Eastern affairs who had been ordered to Egypt.



Just before he left, Lawrence wrote to a friend, Mrs Winifred Fontana, who had recently fled Syria following the Turkish declaration, asking her if there were any commissions he could do for her in Aleppo the following spring. It seems that Lawrence, in common with many of his contemporaries, did not think that the war would last for many more months.
 

FIRST ARTICLE IN THE CENTENARY OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR SERIES

Friday, March 21, 2014

Newcombe auction results

On Wednesday 19 March 2014 Bonhams held an auction of T.E. Lawrence and Stewart Newcombe related items with an impeccable provenance direct from the Newcombe family. A wonderful result was realised with the very first lot (139) which sold way above the estimate. The whole collection realised £196,874. I was present at the preview at Bonhams on the Sunday before the sale and the Newcombe/Lawrence collection was well presented and obviously a star attraction among a wide-ranging and diverse set of important lots relating to Captain Cook, Charles Dickens, Lewis Carroll, Elizabeth 1, Shakespeare, Shelley, Churchill, Christy Brown, E.M. Forster and many others.

Newcombe's field notes
I found the Newcombe field notes packed full of interest and it was a real pleasure to spend time with them. The lot consisted of two Army Field Service Correspondence Books—issued to British Army Officers to record their activities, enemy positions and deployments, etc.—a larger note book used as a diary, mostly for the month of July 1917, and a wealth of loose papers including letters to Lawrence and other fellow officers. The price they eventually realised is proof of the continuing interest in T.E. Lawrence and with the added appeal of the Newcombe story that is only now being revealed.  All but one lot realised on or above its top estimate, with the field notes exceeding expectations and with only Lot 149 (The Mint) not reaching its lowest estimate of £4000 and not selling.

I am grateful to Mr Simon Roberts of the Books, Maps, Manuscripts and Historical Photographs Department for referencing this website in the auction catalogue for background information on Newcombe’s life. 

Here are the auction results:

Lot 139
LAWRENCE, NEWCOMBE and THE ARAB REVOLT
Original field books and other papers kept by Lieutenant-Colonel Stewart Francis Newcombe during operations to destroy the Hejaz Railway in 1917, mostly July 1917.
Sold for £104,500 (€124,657) inc. premium 

NOTE: This was well above the estimated price of £20,000 to 30,000 

Lot 140
LAWRENCE (T.E.)
Autograph letter signed (".L."), to Colonel S.F. Newcombe ("Dear S.-F."), apologising yet again for being a bad letter-writer, 16 February 1920: IN THE EYES OF "THOSE WHO KNOW" I FAILED' LAWRENCE OF ARABIA ON HIS OWN LEGEND
Estimate £4,000 - 6,000 
Sold for £13,750 (€16,402) inc. premium 

Lot 141
LAWRENCE (T.E.)
Autograph letter signed ("E.L." and "L."), to Colonel S.F. Newcombe ("Dear S.F.N."), apologising for being such a bad correspondent: 'YOU CAN'T MAKE WAR UPON REBELLION' LAWRENCE OF ARABIA ON IRELAND'S STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE, All Souls College, Oxford, 16 November [1920]
Estimate £1,000 - 1,500 
Sold for £2,750 (€3,280) inc. premium 

Lot 142
LAWRENCE (T.E.)
Autograph letter signed ("TEL."), to Colonel S.F. Newcombe ("Dear S.F.N."), complaining of the brutal behaviour of France as a colonial power in the Middle East, Amman, 8 November 1921
Estimate £1,000 - 1,500 
Sold for £4,375 (€5,218) inc. premium 

Lot 143
LAWRENCE (T.E.)
Autograph letter signed ("TEL."), to Colonel S.F. Newcombe (Dear S.F.N."), announcing his enlistment and discussing portraits for Seven Pillars, 15 October 1922
Estimate £2,000 - 3,000 
Sold for £4,750 (€5,666) inc. premium 

Lot 144
LAWRENCE (T.E.)
Seven Pillars of Wisdom, a triumph, SUBSCRIBERS' EDITION, ONE OF 170 COMPLETE COPIES, S.F. NEWCOMBE'S COPY, [Privately Printed] for the Author by Manning Pike and H. J. Hodgson, 1926
Estimate £30,000 - 40,000  
Sold for £50,000 (€59,644) inc. premium 

Lot 145
LAWRENCE (T.E.)
The Odyssey of Homer, [translated by T.E. Lawrence], LIMITED TO 530 COPIES, PRESENTATION COPY FROM T.E. LAWRENCE TO HIS GODSON, STEWART LAWRENCE NEWCOMBE, Emery Walker, Wilfred Merton and Bruce Rogers, 1932
Estimate £4,000 - 6,000  
Sold for £5,625 (€6,710) inc. premium 

Lot 146
LAWRENCE (T.E.)
Autograph letter signed ("T.E.S."), to Colonel S.F. Newcombe ("Dear S-F"), making contact again after a long interval, Myrtle Cottage, Hythe, 22 June 1932
Estimate £600 - 800  
Sold for £1,750 (€2,087) inc. premium 

Lot 147
LAWRENCE BY KENNINGTON
Memorial photograph of Eric Kennington's bust of Lawrence of Arabia, taken in a dramatic raking light against a pitch dark background, signed and dated in the month of Lawrence's death by the artist ("Eric H. Kennington/ May 1935"), May 1935
Estimate £600 - 800   
Sold for £1,062 (€1,267) inc. premium 

Lot 148
LAWRENCE (T.E.)
A Letter from T.E. Lawrence to His Mother, S.F. NEWCOMBE'S COPY, NUMBER 22 OF 12 ON BARCHAM GREEN MEDWAY PAPER, FROM AN EDITION OF 30 COPIES, Corvinus Press for Mrs Lawrence, August 1936
Estimate £2000 - 3000   
Sold for £3,750 (€4,473) inc. premium 

Lot 149
LAWRENCE (T.E.)
The Mint. Notes Made in the R.A.F. Depot Betwen August and December 1922, and at Cadet College in 1925. By 352087 A/c Ross, FIRST EDITION, NUMBER 4 OF 10 COPIES 'FOR SALE', FROM AN EDITION OF 50, A.W. LAWRENCE AND S.F. NEWCOMBE'S COPY, Garden City, Doubleday, Doran, 1936
Estimate £4,000 - 6,000
NOT SOLD

Lot 150
LAWRENCE (T.E.)
Crusader Castles, 2 vol., S.F. NEWCOMBE'S COPY, Golden Cockerel Press, 1936
Estimate £500 - 700   
Sold for £1,000 (€1,192) inc. premium 

Lot 151
HART (LIDDELL) and RONALD STORRS
Lawrence of Arabia, S.F. NEWCOMBE'S COPY, NUMBER 73 OF 70 ON BARCHAM GREEN MEDWAY PAPER, Corvinus Press, 22 May 1936
Estimate £600 - 800   
Sold for £1,125 (€1,342) inc. premium 

Lot 152
LAWRENCE (T.E.)
The Diary of T.E. Lawrence 1911, S.F. NEWCOMBE'S COPY, NUMBER 160 OF 130 ON PARCHMENT SUBSTITUTE PAPER, Corvinus Press, June 1937
Estimate £800 - 1200   
Sold for £1,500 (€1,789) inc. premium 

Lot 153
LAWRENCE (T.E.)
Secret Despatches from Arabia, S.F. NEWCOMBE'S COPY, NUMBER 638 OF 970 COPIES, 1939; Men in Print, NUMBER 301 OF 470 COPIES, 1940, Golden Cockerel Press (2))
Estimate £600 - 800   
Sold for £937 (€1,118) inc. premium