Lawrence's plans for the Middle East included seperate areas for the predominately Kurdish and Arab areas in present-day Iraq. © Imperial War Museum
A peace map has been discovered outlining Lawrence of Arabia’s proposals for the reconstruction of the Middle East at the end of the First World War.
The proposals, which radically differ from what was eventually implemented by the victorious Allied powers, are on display as part of Lawrence of Arabia: The Life, The Legend, at London’s Imperial War Museum from October 12 2005 to April 17 2006.
Lawrence’s peace map was recently uncovered at the National Archives in Kew and illustrate the recommendations he made to the Eastern Committee of the War Cabinet in November 1918. They show how he opposed the Allied agreement, which eventually determined the borders of modern day Iraq.
T E Lawrence pictured in 1931 after he had left the army. Photograph Howard Carter © National Portrait Gallery, London
The suggested frontiers would have replaced a plan drawn up in 1916 by Sir Mark Sykes and Francois Georges-Picot.
“The discovery of the map is particularly interesting,” said Jeremy Wilson, Lawrence biographer and one of the historical advisors to the exhibition.
“It suggests that Lawrence’s proposals were taken fairly seriously, at least in London. They would have provided the region with a far better starting point than the crude imperial carve up agreed by Sykes and Georges-Picot.”
Lawrence helped lead the Arab forces in their capture of Aqaba on the Red Sea in 1917. © Imperial War Museum
Lawrence's alternative plan called for separate governments for the predominantly Kurdish and Arab areas in what is now Iraq. From 1916 he had heard the views from men across the Middle East during the Arab revolt against the Turks and was also in contact with other British experts on the region.
His plans were strenuously opposed, however, by the British administration in Mesopotamia.
Thomas Edward Lawrence was born in north Wales in 1888 and after graduating from Oxford University first travelled to the Middle East on an archaeological expedition. At the outbreak of the First World War he joined the army and in 1916 was made an intelligence officer in Cairo.
The exhibition features the Brough Superior 100 motorbike he was riding when he had his fatal accident in 1935. © The Bodleian Library, University of Oxford
After meeting with local sheikhs rebelling against the occupying Turks he became their liaison officer and was instrumental in organising the Arab revolt.
He later joined the RAF and soon after discharge in February 1935 was killed in a motorcycle accident.
Several other previously unseen objects feature in the exhibition, including the Arab revolt flag raised at the capture the Red Sea port of Aqaba in July 1917 and dramatic colour slides, scripts and publicity material from Lowell Thomas’s 1919 travelogues that contributed to the Lawrence of Arabia legend.
The motorcycle he was riding when he had his fatal accident in May 1935 is also displayed, along with other motorcycle accessories that have not been exhibited before.
