[Harry Pirie-Gordon; Lawrence of Arabia] Autograph Letter Signed "HPG" AND Autog. Postcard Signed "Harry Pirie-Gordon" to Court [Stanley Court]. WITH: photographic copy of letter to Pirie-Gordon from a "stanley Court" [?], newspaper pages & cuttings

All items in good condition. ONE. ALS, 2pp. 8vo. He is responding to receipt of articles about Lawrence of Arabia (present - see below) with memories of encounters with Lawrence. "[...] I remember having a long discussion with him in the Colonial Office about the political colouring of the Map of Arabia (Plate 50) for THE TIMES ATLAS 1922 Edition of which I had been put in charge after my return to Printing Hpouse Square at the end of 1919 - He was getting restive about British policy which was vainly trying to persuade Jews and Arabs to work togther in double harness - we both remembered that I, as Editor of the Army newspaper The Palestine News [...] had been ordered on no account ever to mention or refer to the Balfour Declaration although I was meeting Weizmann daily in the Political Mess and had to keep the peace between rival sects of Zionists on my Hebrew staff where the upholders of Hebrew as a language to be brought up to date & modernised resorted to the meanest intrigue against those who wanted to present Hebrew as a sacred language & use Yiddish as the language of {?] and administration. | That was my last long conversation with Lawrence - later, when he came to The Times to see Philip Graves - the elder half-brother of Robert Graves - whom I relieved in 1925 as Times correspondent in Turkey - I used to see him for a few minutes [...] | It may interest you to know that my map of Syria which I lent Lawrence for his first adventure on foot to the Near East and was returned to me stained with his blood when he was beaten up by bad Kurds is now in the collection of Lawrence relics formed by Mr. Donald Weeks an enthusiastic American admirer of Lawrence [...]" In a Postscript he adds discussion of social event[s]. TWO. APCS, presumably to the same correspondent, Augustus John image one side, text on other as follows:"T.E. Lawrence was sent by my [senior?] man Dr. Hogarth, at one time Director of the British School of Archaeology in Athens to see me before starting on his first visit to Palestine & Syria. We talked for a long time in the [?] Restaurant about his coming journey & I sent him a map of Syria which I had used in my own first visit to Palestine in Feb. 1908. On his return Lawrence gave me back the map with apologies beause one corner of his [sic, for 'it'] was stained with his blood as the result of his being attacked & [?] by 'Bad Kurds'. I saw a good deal of Lawrence during 1917 and 1918 in Palestine and had been to see him in the Army Map Room in Cairo in Nov. 1914." Lawrence, he goes on, had been called upon to provide maps fo rthe British Naval c-in-C East indies and "the French Rear Afd. at Port Said for whom Lawrence had no sort of respect or use and [?] him as being no more than 'the Frog Admiral' with a map such as any tourist could have bought [...] but marked 'Secret' in four different colours and most elaborately sealed." THREE: Copy letter from Stanley Court to Pirie-Gordon, two pages, 4to, headed 123 Seymer Road, Romford, Essex, 1 July 1968, a covering letter fOR sending newspaper articles about Lawrence (present), asking if they are useful or scandal-mongering. He wonders if the minds of(sailors) Alec Rose and Chichester would be analysed in the future, and lists other heroes of his "Wellington, Nelson, etc.). FOUR: Newspaper cuttings and pages including Colin Simpson and Philip Knightley on T.E. Lawrence (Sunday Times, several excerpts), the Obituary for Harry Pirie-Gordon from The Times, Compton Mackenzie with his personal obit, prob from The Times, abd a snippet concerning T.E. Lawrence books at auction with a note, presumably by Court, that Pirie=Gordon lent him "Crusader Castles". Note: Pirie-Gordon was also a collaborator with Corvo, making many apearances in "The Quest for Corvo", and an "eminent genealogist" - And "Laird of Buthlaw", etc. Donald Weeks was also a collector of Baron Corrvo material, contributing a biography.