I was a plumber's mate in Barnsley and the job we were doing required an S-bend for the sink. The plumber sent me to get one. I discovered Mick, the storekeeper, had met TE Lawrence after my hero had changed his name to TE Shaw and joined the RAF. I remember Mick saying Lawrence was surly. If you managed to get him to talk at all, it would be only about guns, tanks, aeroplanes etc. Any attempt to get him to talk about himself ended the conversation. I was enthralled, and our chat lasted an hour or longer.
When I eventually returned with the S-bend, the plumber was furious. He said: "Where have you been?" I said: "Talking to Mick in the stores. He knew Lawrence of Arabia." The plumber said: "Bugger Lawrence of Arabia. Give me that S-bend."
About the same time I met an old man who knew Robert Graves, Lawrence's friend. He told me he had been in the Royal Welsh Fusiliers in the first world war. Having read Goodbye To All That, I knew this was Graves's regiment, and I asked the old man if he knew Captain Robert Graves. He said: "A big bloke with black curly hair?" I said: "Yes, that's him." Not knowing Graves had become a famous writer and wondering how a teenager knew a man he'd known 50 years earlier, he said: "How the bloody hell do you know him?"
Richard Hines
Sheffield
richardahines@hotmail.com
