“Waiting off Suez was the Lama, a small converted liner; and in her we left immediately.”

Events of 13 October 1916 as recounted by T. E. Lawrence in Seven Pillars of Wisdom (1926).

The previous day, as the Oriental Secretary Ronald Storrs had set off for the Hejaz in the company of Lieutenant T. E. Lawrence, he had recorded in his diary: “On the train from Cairo little Lawrence my
supercerebral companion.”

This was Lawrence’s first visit to the Hejaz.

In future years, when writing his Memoirs, Storrs would admit that Lawrence’s “enduring world-fame makes it difficult to replace him now in his original perspective, and I must confess, almost with shame, that my sentiments in applying for him were mainly gratitude for his assistance in the Hejaz stamp issue and in other matters, the high value I attached to his judgment on any question, and his admirable company.”

Yet it was this journey to the Hejaz, Storrs noted, that would end with his companion becoming known permanently to the world as Lawrence of Arabia.