The T. E. Lawrence Society is delighted to hear that Lawrence’s beloved Clouds Hill cottage in Dorset has been upgraded to Grade II* Listed status today by the Heritage Minister Tracey Crouch. It is an official recognition of Lawrence’s place in history, as well as the special position which Clouds Hill held in his heart: his “earthly paradise” as he described it in one of his last letters written in May 1935.
News
We have been saddened to hear of the death of Hugh Leach – “soldier, diplomat, Arabist, author, adventurer, circus impresario, and eccentric” as he was described in an obituary in the Daily Telegraph – on 14 November at the age of 81.
We are very sorry to have heard from Jeremy Wilson of the passing of Professor Mary Bryden, who contributed so much to Lawrence scholarship and the Society.
Campaigners could have to wait 18 months to hear whether they have succeeded in saving the idyllic village of Moreton in Dorset – where Lawrence is buried – from the threat posed by quarrying, according to a BBC South report broadcast this week.
Dorset Magazine is the latest publication to cover the Society’s campaign to block the designation of land close to Lawrence’s grave in Moreton, Dorset, for the quarrying of sand and gravel.
Following an approach from a concerned resident of Moreton village in Dorset regarding a proposed policy to allow the quarrying of sand and gravel on a site along the main road into the village from the west – a little over half a mile from the cemetery where T. E. Lawrence is buried – the Society has made a representation to Dorset County Council in opposition to the plan.
A silver-gilt dagger presented to Lawrence by Sherif Nasir after the capture of Akaba and later left in the keeping of Lady Kathleen Scott after she sculpted Lawrence in 1921 was sold for £122,500 at Christie’s saleroom in King Street, London, on July 15 (hammer price plus commission).
We have been saddened to hear of the death of Omar Sharif, who has died at the age of 83.
2 Polstead Road, the Oxford home of the Lawrence family between 1896 and 1921, together with the bungalow built in the back garden for the youthful T. E. Lawrence, is an important piece of Lawrence history.