On the 19th May 1935 Thomas Edward Lawrence was killed as he drove his motorbike near his Dorset home.
Lawrence was fatally injured in an accident on his Brough Superior SS100 motorcycle in Dorset close to his cottage Clouds Hill, near Wareham, just two months after leaving military service. He was 46. A dip in the road obstructed his view of two boys on their bicycles; he swerved to avoid them, lost control, and was thrown over the handlebars. He died six days later on 19 May 1935. The location of the crash is marked by a small memorial at the roadside.
Lawrence, immortalised in the film Lawrence of Arabia in which he was played by Peter O’Toole, has become an icon sometimes compared with Robin Hood.
At Lawrence’s funeral the likes of Winston Churchill and other well known dignities paid their respects.
Theories that Lawrence was murdered have never found any convincing supporting evidence. His apparent sympathies for the British Union of Fascists has been proposed but remains in the historical shadows at this time.
A film about the life of Lawrence post Arabia was itself ‘censored’ by the National Trust based upon the conspiratorial accusation that the screenplay did not adhere to the official version of history.
The cast of the film paid a moving tribute to Lawrence in 2019 at his graveside:
Like many iconic figures from history what we do know is counter balanced by what we don’t know. Thomas Edward Lawrence is no different.
