1888-1935

British Military Strategist

T. E. Lawrence was a British liaison officer in the Middle East during World War I, and actively promoted Arab independence. His military exploits, recounted in his book The Seven Pillars of Wisdom (1926), made him a legendary figure in the popular imagination, and he became famous as "Lawrence of Arabia."

Thomas Edward Lawrence was born on August 15, 1888, in Tremadoc, Caernarvonshire, Wales. He was one of five illegitimate sons of an Anglo-Irish peer, Sir Thomas Chapman, who had run off with the family governess. The couple adopted the name "Lawrence" and lived as husband and wife.

"T.E.," who preferred his initials to his name, attended Jesus College at Oxford, pursuing an interest in medieval military architecture. His 1910 honors thesis was on Crusader castles, which he studied in France, Syria, and Palestine. For the next three years, he worked on an...