Lawrence of Arabia's last ride
By Nigel Winter12:52PM BST 20 May 2015
The death of T.E. Lawrence - Lawrence of Arabia - 80 years ago remains shrouded in mystery. Nigel Winter outlines the famed soldier's final days
The incident was over in seconds; the distant roar of a powerful motorcycle, probably travelling far faster than anyone appreciated. And then the cycle was knocked from under a schoolboy, who was left dazed to ponder who it was that was lying face down by the roadside. Only one man on the Isle of Purbeck rode such an expensive motorcycle. That man was Lawrence of Arabia.
From that moment on, a corner of Dorset went into lockdown. Lawrence was taken away in an army truck, a guard was placed on his cottage and there was a media blackout. No one came. No one went.
The two schoolboys involved in the incident (one of whom had been knocked off his bicycle) who had started the day looking for bird's eggs were wide-eyed and in custody. Most people in Britain did not believe MI5 actually existed. Most people in rural Dorset had not even heard of the organisation and now the county was teeming with its curious members.
Thomas Edward Lawrence CB DSO's beloved 998cc Brough Superior motorcycle had a tarpaulin thrown over it before it was secretly driven away on the back of a Ford truck. This was the very motorcycle that Lawrence prophetically described as "…a skittish motorcycle with a touch of blood in it"....
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/motorbikes/11593356/Lawrence-of-Arabias-last-ride.html
