Colonel Thomas Edward Lawrence, CB, DSO (16 August 1888 – 19 May 1935) is a British archaeologist, army officer, diplomat, and writer.

He is renowned for his role in the Arab Revolt and the Sinai and Palestine Campaign against the Ottoman Empire during the First World War.

The breadth and variety of his activities and associations, and his ability to describe them vividly in writing, earns him international fame as Lawrence of Arabia, a title used for the 1962 film based on his wartime activities.

He was born out of wedlock in August 1888 to Sarah Junner, a governess, and Thomas Chapman, an Anglo-Irish landowner.

Chapman left his wife and family in Ireland to cohabit with Junner.

Chapman and Junner called themselves Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence, the surname of Sarah's likely father; her mother had been employed as a servant for a Lawrence family when she became pregnant with Sarah.

In 1896, the Lawrences move to Oxford, where Thomas attendsthe High School and then studies history at Jesus College from 1907 to 1910.

Between 1910 and 1914, he works as an archaeologist for the British Museum, chiefly at Carchemish in Ottoman Syria.

Soon after the outbreak of war, he volunteers for the British Army and is stationed in Egypt.

n 1916, he is sent to Arabia on an intelligence mission and quickly becomes involved with the Arab Revolt as a liaison to the Arab forces, along with other British officers.

He works closely with Emir Faisal, a leader of the revolt, and he participates, sometimes as leader, in military actions against the Ottoman armed forces, culminating in the capture of Damascus in October 1918.

After the war, Lawrence joins the Foreign Office, working with the British government and with Faisal.

In 1922, he retreats from public life and spent the years until 1935 serving as an enlisted man, mostly in the Royal Air Force, with a brief period in the Army.

During this time, he publishes his best-known work Seven Pillars of Wisdom, an autobiographical account of his participation in the Arab Revolt.

He also translates books into English and writes The Mint, which detais his time in the Royal Air Force working as an ordinary aircraftman.

He corresponds extensively and is friendly with well-known artists, writers, and politicians.

For the RAF, he participates in the development of rescue motorboats.

Lawrence's public image results in part from the sensationalized reporting of the Arab revolt by American journalist Lowell Thomas, as well as from Seven Pillars of Wisdom.

In 1935, Lawrence is fatally injured in a motorcycle accident in Dorset.