The Times of London reported today that handwritten letters of T.E. Lawrence have been stolen from the offices of the Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF) under the heading 'Thief snatches Lawrence of Arabia's historic letters'. In the letters, which are more than 100-years old, Lawrence of Arabia discusses his
involvement in what the newspaper describes as a 'devious archaeological expedition'. Felicity Cobbing, the curator of the archive, said the letters were stolen by a “gloating thief”.
“They’re going to be very difficult to shift because they’re well
known,” Ms Cobbing said. “They were probably taken by somebody who likes to
look at things and gloat in their own privacy.”
Lawrence and C.L. Woolley had been invited by the PEF to provide archaeological cover for Royal Engineer surveyors under the command of Stewart Newcombe who were operating in the desert region south of the Gaza-Beersheba
line in southern Palestine as part of a secret survey carried
out on behalf of the British War Office.
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| PEF Quarterly Statement |
It is thought the theft of the letters occurred between November 2013 and January last
year and only came to light after it was revealed by Anthony Sattin, the
author of Young Lawrence, who was the last person to see some of the stolen material whilst researching his book. Having left the file on a table to be put away by the archivist Sattin believes that an opportunist took the documents when he left the room.
“The PEF had a very relaxed
way of handling their archive,” he said. “They only found out when
someone else requested the material and it wasn’t in the folder.”
Ms Cobbing said
that the PEF had “toughened up” its security. “It was a horrible
reality check because as an archive, the whole reason for us existing is
to promote research and scholarship.”
The offices at the PEF are small and intimate and admittance is normally by appointment by people genuinely interested in researching the work of the organisation or the many personalities connected to it. Kitchener, Lawrence and Newcombe are well represented in the archives which date back to 1865 when the society was founded. The PEF's offices also house a unique collection of photographs, pictures, maps and antiquities. The organisation describes itself as the "oldest in the world created specifically for the
study of the Levant, the southern portion of which was conventionally
known as ‘Palestine’. The PEF is a major bridge and information resource
for the public and academic community."
NOTE: Lawrence
once wrote to Colonel Wavell admitting that when he first received Wavell's
book The Palestine Campaigns his
first vanity was to look himself up in the index. I would like to take this
opportunity to thank Anthony Sattin for acknowledging my insignificant contribution to
his research and mentioning me and my forthcoming biography of Newcombe in his own
Acknowledgments for Young Lawrence. Although I have not yet had the time to read Mr. Sattin's book I was pleased to see it receive positive reviews:
“A compelling, pioneering
biography - Sattin
has written a compelling account of a young man learning to live according
to his dreams” - The Observer
“Reading
Anthony Sattin’s “The Young T.E. Lawrence” is particularly fascinating when the
West’s empathy for the Arab world is at such a low, undermined by violence and
mistrust” – Wall Street Journal
“A
quirky but rigorous biographical study” – The
Economist
“Anthony
Sattin proves that the British know how to write a great adventure as well how
to have one. This highly readable book never lacks for the big story but it
also does not let that history lose the hero” – New York Journal of Books
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