T. E. Lawrence

Born illegitimate in Wales in 1888, Thomas Edward Lawrence studied history at Oxford and spent four years digging ruins in Ottoman Syria as an archaeologist for the British Museum. When war broke out in 1914, he joined military intelligence in Egypt, and by 1916 was moving through Mesopotamia and Arabia on missions that folded him into the Arab revolt. Assigned as liaison to Emir Faisal, he fought alongside the rebellion through engagements that ended with the fall of Damascus in October 1918. After the war he worked briefly with Faisal at the Foreign Office, then published Seven Pillars of Wisdom in 1926 - an autobiographical reckoning that fixed his legend. He spent his last thirteen years as an enlisted man in the Army and RAF, translating books, writing about service life in The Mint, corresponding with artists and politicians, and working on rescue motorboats. He died at 46 from injuries in a motorcycle crash in Dorset in 1935.