T. E. Lawrence | Autograph letter signed, to Leeson, on his life in India, 23 June 1927

Property of a Distinguished Collector

T.E. Lawrence

Autograph letter signed ("T.E. Shaw"), to B.E. Leeson

assuring him that the covering envelope for Leeson's copy of Seven Pillars of Wisdom was not in his handwriting ("...I can't explain the envelope, unless [Manning] Pike, my very excellent printer, was entertaining his leisure by copying my fist...") as he is stationed in India ("...I've been out here solidly since I last wrote to you, and am likely, accidents barred, to be here till 1932. Five years we do, abroad, you know [...] It isn't quite Karachi. The RAF depot is at Drigh Road, seven miles inland: and here I work in the E[ngine] R[epair] S[hop]. You'll notice I don't say 'work hard'..."), 2 pages, 4to, Karachi, 23 June 1927, with autograph envelope 

Lawrence had been stationed in Karachi since late in 1926. He subsequently moved to Miranshah near the Afghan border, but was recalled to the UK in January 1929 after it was reported in the press that he had been involved in an insurrection in Afghanistan.

His correspondent, B.E. Leeson, was a veteran of the Arab Revolt and the RFC. He had joined 14 Squadron of the RFC in January 1917 as an Observer with the rank of Lieutenant. The squadron was then providing aerial support to Arab and British forces from Rabigh, north of Mecca in the Hejaz, and later from Wejh. Leeson's personal connection with Lawrence came in late April, when the two men had been part of a small group who spent a week exploring a remote valley, Wadi Hamdh, to recover a crashed B.E.2c biplane. The temperature was 118° in the shade, the country was waterless, and their car constantly had to be cut free of thick dry brushwood. Leeson was subsequently invalided out of Arabia. By the time of this letter, he was living in Manchester.

This letter appears to be unpublished.