Harshawardhan_Bosham Nimkhedkar wrote: > Lawrence of Arabia negatives go for £6,572 > > April 12 2008 > > ORIGINAL negatives of Welsh First World War hero Lawrence of > Arabia were sold at auction yesterday for £6,572 after being > discovered by a collector who bought them for £32. > > The pictures show him posing in India in the 1920s and were > estimated to sell for £1,500 at Duke's Auction House in Dorchester, > Dorset. <snip> T.E. Lawrence must, in all probability, have been the most enigmatic Britisher of the past 150 years. He had an aversion to publicity which induced him, on leaving the army after his hurried return to Britain, to change his name and re-enlist, this time as an aircraftsman in the RAF. Once this was discovered he again changed his name, but continued his RAF service. I must confess to forgetting his service in India in his lowly rank. I regret the loss, some years ago, of my 1930s copy of The Seven Pillars of Wisdom. The underhand dealings within the 'Chancelleries of Europe', (including our own Foreign Office) concerning the Middle East is one of the sadder episodes following WW I. It is true that many in the British foreign service were in fact very pro-Arab, (their number was termed 'The Camel Corps' - of which there are still remnants), but their thoughts did not hold sway. Certainly Lawrence was very distressed, disillusioned and embittered by what he judged to be the revoking of many promises made to the Arabs at the time of the final dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. Yours Aye Andrew Sellon