Proceedings at the Unveiling of the Memorial to Lawrence of Arabia.
Oxford: J. Thornton & Son, 1937. First edition, first (trade) issue. Wraps. This scarce booklet encapsulates and commemorates the 3 October 1936 unveiling of the memorial to T.E. Lawrence “of Arabia” (1888-1935) at Lawrence’s alma mater, the City of Oxford High School for Boys. Winston Churchill was present to unveil the plaque and this publication is significant for inclusion of Churchill’s speech given at the event, found at pages 9-18.
The publication is string-bound in grey card wraps with untrimmed edges printed in navy blue on the front cover. The 23-page contents are printed in black on untrimmed, laid paper, preceded by a frontispiece photographic portrait of the subject memorial plaque. They also include speeches made at the unveiling ceremony by the president of the Old Oxford Citizens’ Society, the headmaster, and the chairman of the governors of the school, as well as a Foreword and a brief summary of the Proceedings.
Two issues of this publication are noted by Winston Churchill’s bibliographer (See Cohen, Vol. I, A104, pp.465-6). The “trade” issue of the first edition was offered commercially by the Oxford Bookseller J. Thornton & Son. A second “school” issue of the first edition was produced by the City of Oxford High School for Boys specifically for students, with an additional sentence appended to the Foreword stating that purpose. The trade issue, which features “OXFORD | J. THORNTON & SON | 1937” on the front cover, both has precedence of publication and appears to be the scarcer of the two.
This copy is the first (trade) issue. Condition is very good overall. The card wraps are entirely complete, fully intact, and firmly attached, with no loss or tears, their original string binding still in place, and no splits at the spine. We note mild age-toning, light wear to the extremities where they overhang the text block and a touch of incidental soiling. The contents are generally clean, with no previous ownership marks. Spotting appears almost entirely confined to the inside front cover and the facing blank. The frontispiece portrait of Lawrence has created a corresponding square of offsetting to the title page.
On 3 October 1936, “At 11:30 three trumpeters of the Royal Air Force sounded a fanfare, and Mr. Churchill unveiled the plaque in the presence of some fifty guests…” The plaque was designed and created by Lawrence’s friend, the artist Eric Kennington, who had drawn the portraits for Lawrence’s magnum opus, Seven Pillars of Wisdom. The plaque itself was a testimony to the “full measure of the versatility of genius” with which Churchill credited his friend. Lawrence’s profile is bordered by symbolic ornamentation of his achievements: the corners are four medieval castles, at the top is a dagger, Arab head-rope, and speed-boat, at the bottom are books and his Cloud’s Hill cottage, at the sides are emblems of his studies: Chartres, English and early Greek, and Ishtar of the Hittites whose remains he excavated.
Churchill was both a friend and great admirer of Lawrence, and lavished on him extravagant pith and exultation. This unveiling ceremony was no exception. Churchill’s comments are a paean stirred by genuine personal regard and a palpable sense of loss. Moreover, Churchill’s comments carry the echo of Churchill’s worries about the great looming shadow of the Second World War: “Those who knew him best miss him most; but our country misses him most of all… For this is a time when the great problems upon which his thought and work had so long centered, problems of aerial defence, problems of our relations with the Arab peoples, fill an ever larger space in our affairs. For all his reiterated renunciations I always felt that he was a man who held himself ready for a call. While Lawrence lived one always felt… that some overpowering need would draw him from the modest path he chose to tread and set him once again in full action at the centre of events. It was not to be.” Churchill concluded that Lawrence’s name “will live in English letters… in the traditions of the Royal Air Force… in the annals of war and in the legends of Arabia. It will also live here in his old school…” (17-18) According to the Proceedings, “Mr. Churchill was loudly applauded, and bowed his head in acknowledgement.”
References: Cohen A104.1, O’Brien E117. Item #008920
Price: $350.00