Lawrence of Oxford
In memoriam
In the early 1980s the then owner occupiers of the family home in Polstead Road, together with Jesus College and All Souls' College, arranged for a plaque to be fixed to the front wall of the house which proclaims to passers-by that 'This house was the home of T E Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) from 1896-1921", and it is probably the most photographed feature in this off-the-tourist-trail area of Oxford.
Towards the end of that same decade, an appeal was launched and a centenary commemorative window was commissioned, featuring a portrait based on the famous Augustus John study of TEL in Arab robes.
It depicts in its symbolic surround a medieval castle in each of the four corners, TEL's Arab head rope, and his speedboat. The plaque subsequently moved with the school to its new premises. Just below the plaque was the school's war memorial, on which the names of Will and Frank appeared. Both of them lost their lives in the First World War.
Even in a city of eminent persons, it is clear that Jesus College holds dear the memory of this particular undergraduate. This bust by Eric Kennington, a copy of the memorial bust in London's St Paul's Cathedral, greets visitors to the college chapel. His portrait, a copy of the work by Augustus John which is now in the Tate Britain gallery, London, gazes down on diners in the main hall, and a portrait by James McBey and a large brass rubbing by TEL are to be found in private room within the college.
This plaque hangs in the front lodge of Jesus College. Its Latin inscription translates as '1907-1910 Here Thomas Edward Lawrence spent three years, the dauntless champion of oppressed Arabia. Lest his name be forgotten, the youth of Jesus College set up this bronze tablet'. And this is followed by that appropriate quotation from the beginning of The Book of Proverbs, 'Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars'.