City of Oxford High School for Boys
The five Lawrence brothers attended school here. It was a newly opened grammar school, low in fees but with a high reputation, which provided a sound classical education and had excellent links to the nearby University Colleges.
Ned Lawrence, as he was known, was at the school from 1896 to 1907. The building in George Street is a substantial and highly ornate design evoking the best of Victorian extravagant architecture.
It is now part of the University’s History Faculty and is not open to the public, but in appearance from the outside it is much as Lawrence would have remembered.
A bronze plaque carved by Eric Kennington, depicting Lawrence surrounded by images reflecting his different interests throughout his life, is hung on the wall of the staircase, alongside a memorial to the fallen of the First World War, including his brothers Will and Frank.
Jesus College
Lawrence applied for a history scholarship at St John’s College, which had already accepted Bob, his elder brother. He then turned to Jesus College which had special awards open only to men with Welsh connections. Although he had no Welsh ancestry, he had been born in what was then Caernarvonshire and this enabled him in 1907 to be elected to a Meyricke Exhibition with an annual value of £40.
Jesus College was founded in 1571 by Queen Elizabeth I at the request of a Welsh lawyer and clergyman, Hugh Price. The compact, centrally-located college has beautiful quadrangles tucked away off Turl Street.
Lawrence spent much of his three years not at the College, but living at home. His thesis on the Crusader castles which won him a First Class Degree is held in the College library. In the Chapel at Jesus College is a cast of Eric Kennington’s magnificent 1926 bronze bust of Lawrence. Jesus College, along with the other Colleges listed on this page, can be visited most days. See the various College websites for details of opening hours.
St John’s College
While Lawrence was at university, some of his tutorials were with Ernest Barker at St John’s. He was also familiar with the College
because two of his brothers, Bob and Will, were undergraduates here. The college is well known to the T. E. Lawrence Society as it is a regular venue for the Society’s biennial Symposium.
Magdalen College
In 1910 Lawrence became a Senior Demy at Magdalen College. This was a form of scholarship, arranged by D. G. Hogarth to provide Lawrence with funds while he worked as an unpaid assistant at the British Museum’s Carchemish excavations in Syria.
All Souls College
In 1919 Lawrence was elected to a seven-year Research Fellowship at All Souls. The College was founded in 1438 and is primarily an academic research institution and has no undergraduate members.
Election as a Fellow provided Lawrence with an income while he worked on Seven Pillars of Wisdom.
He had rooms in the College but spent most of his time elsewhere. His Fellowship of All Souls takes prominence on the headstone of his grave in Moreton, Dorset.
All Souls College has a collection of Lawrence memorabilia including the gold dagger he sold to Lionel Curtis for £125 to pay for repairs at Clouds Hill. It also holds a bronze bust of Lawrence sculpted (from memory) in 1946 by Lady Kathleen Scott, widow of Scott of the Antarctic, and presented to All Souls after her death.
