Lawrence of Arabia and the man from Willesden

TE Lawrence, known as Lawrence of Arabia, was a controversial Army officer and diplomat. 

For more information about him see Wikipedia. 

Lawrence’s exploits and his work in British intelligence was largely unknown until the American war correspondent Lowell Thomas launched a 1919 lecture tour recounting his assignment in the Middle East. His photographs and films of ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ transfixed the public and transformed the British colonel into both a war hero and an international celebrity.

Lawrence left military service in 1935, and two months later on 13 May, he was fatally injured in an accident riding his Brough Superior SS100 motorcycle near his cottage in Wareham Dorset. A dip in the road obstructed his view of two boys on bicycles and as he swerved to avoid them, he lost control and was thrown over the handlebars. Six days later he died on 19 May 1935, aged 46.

In 1962 David Lean directed the famous film ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ starring Peter O’Toole.

This story is about Edward Henry Tyler Robinson, a journalist from Willesden who wanted to write a book about Lawrence. In July 1935 he went to see Arnold Walter Lawrence, the younger brother of TE and his literary executor. He lent two manuscripts and 114 photos to Robinson who said he would return them. Arnold later saw a catalogue from New York which showed they had been sold in the Anderson Galleries. He spoke to Robinson who at first said he could not understand it, but later admitted he had sold them to an American dealer. The police contacted Mr Schwartz, a dealer in rare books, who said Robinson had sold them over time for $150. 

Detective Sergeant Guy Mahon of Scotland Yard arrested 39-year old Robinson at his home 155 Dollis Hill Avenue, near Gladstone Park in Willesden. Robinson appeared at Clerkenwell Police Court in June 1937. DS Mahon said he believed that Robinson had served with Lawrence during WWI and had published a book about him. In 1929 Robinson had been sentenced at the Old Bailey to three years imprisonment for forging cheques. He was very sick with mental problems, and in 1929 said he had a dual personality. 

Robinson told the police that while in Maidstone prison he had met a man who blackmailed him over several years after he was released in August 1931. He said in desperation to raise money he had sold the manuscripts and photos to the dealer in New York. Mahon said the part of Robinson’s story about blackmail had proved to be false. 

In his closing statement Robinson’s lawyer said, ‘When a man has lost his good name through a sentence of imprisonment, it is like a mill stone around his neck. The more he gets on in life afterwards the more vulnerable he becomes. He is haunted by the fear that once his past is disclosed he will lose everything’. When he came out of prison he had worked hard and gained a good position as a journlaist. The magistrate was sympathetic to what the lawyer had said. He said he would not take the previous conviction into account and he sentenced Robinson to three months with hard labour. 

The 1939 register showed that Robinson and his wife were still living in Dollis Hill Avenue. In an interview for the Imperial War Museum in 1989 Robinson said he had worked as a typist for Lawrence in Akaba (or Aqaba Jordan), and he discusses what Lawrence did during the War.

Robinson died in Burgess Hill five years after the interview. We have not found a photo of him.