LECONFIELD HOUSE• 305LAWRENCE, T. E.Born in Tremadoc in North Wales in 1888, ‘‘Law-
rence of Arabia’’ won an exhibition to Jesus College, Oxford, and
developed a deep love of literature and architecture and wrote a mod-
ern history there on the Crusades. Awarded a scholarship by Magda-
len College, he spent four years traveling in Palestine and Syria and
in 1914 was granted a commission in the Geographical Section of the
War Office. Lawrence was posted to Cairo and spent two years in the
Arab Bureau, the regional British intelligence agency, before accom-
panying (Sir) Ronald Storrs to Jidda to negotiate with the grand sharif
of Mecca. The sharif’s third son, Faisal, was to become Lawrence’s
lifelong friend, and he helped the Arab tribes unite. Lawrence led an
Arab force to seize the Turkish-garrisoned town of Aqaba in August
1917 and in October 1918 defeated the Turkish 4th Army and occu-
pied Damascus. His unorthodox tactics, which included train-wreck-
ing on a massive scale, appealed to the Arabs and outmaneuvered the
enemy. The Turks put a large price on his head, but when he was
briefly captured at Deraa, they failed to recognize him, thus allowing
him to escape after a traumatic beating.
After the war, Lawrence returned to Oxford as a research fellow at
All Souls but was persuaded in 1921 byWinston Churchillto join
the Colonial Office as an adviser on Arab affairs. However, disillu-
sioned with government policy and dismayed by the publicity at-
tracted by the success of his war memoirs,Seven Pillars of Wisdom,
he changed his name to J. H. Ross and joined the ranks of the Royal
Air Force. In 1926 he was posted to the northwest frontier of India
but was withdrawn when the Soviets, suspicious of the presence of
such a notorious figure, complained to the British government. The
remainder of his military service was spent testing high-powered res-
cue craft on the Solent. Four months after his retirement in February
1935, at the age of 46, he was killed in a motorcycle accident.
LE CARRE ́, JOHN.See CORNWELL, DAVID.
LECONFIELD HOUSE.The postwar headquarters of the Security
Service, Leconfield House is located on the corner of Curzon Street
and South Audley Street. From 1945 it accommodated the office of
the director-general, theRegistry, and the transcription center. It was
too small to house the entire organization, soMI5spread into numer-