Lawrence of Oxford

University days were at an end - whither now? TEL might at this point have chosen to undertake further research or to teach, but his way was already marked clearly enough, and he was about to put years of amateur practice and interest to use in his chosen career as a professional archaeologist.

It had been his early interest in brass rubbings which had first taken TEL across the threshold of the Ashmolean, Britain's oldest public museum, and as his interest in medieval pottery developed he was to become an even more frequent visitor.

During his school days, the centre of Oxford was undergoing its first major redevelopment in centuries, and there was much to delight the amateur archaeologist in the foundations of razed buildings. The museum's annual report for 1906 records that 'Owing to the generosity of Mr E Lawrence and Mr C E F Beeson' - school friend 'Scroggs' - 'who have by incessant watchfulness secured everything of antiquarian value which has been found, the most interesting finds have been added to the local antiquities in the Museum' - and further gifts are acknowledged in later reports.

In 1908 the newly appointed Assistant Keeper, E T Leeds, enlisted TEL's help in producing a summary guide to the museum, and subsequently in organising and relabelling the diverse collection of medieval antiquities. Friendships such as this and others made at the Ashmolean were to be of considerable importance in progressing his archaeological career. The eminent archaeologist, (later Sir) Leonard Wooley, whom TEL subsequently assisted at Carchemish, was at that time also working at the Ashmolean as Junior Assistant Keeper. But most important of all was to be his friendship with David Hogarth, who had succeeded Sir Arthur Evans in 1908 to become Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum. Hogarth came to regard TEL almost as an adopted son, and was a great influence on him, being instrumental in arranging his involvement in the excavations at Carchemish.

The Ashmolean Museum has a number of TEL items in addition to the pottery, not all of them on permanent display. These include three portraits and two ceremonial robes which belonged to him. This one, the more elaborate of the two, was evidently given to TEL by the Emir Feisal.