Lawrence and Hardy - an unusual but close friendship.

16th July 2026

1923 was a year of severe emotional crisis for Thomas Edward Lawrence. He was totally exhausted by the political fallout of the Great War and worn down by his own celebrity. In 1922, In an attempt to find the anonymity, he now craved, he had hidden in the Royal Airforce under the alias John Hume Ross, but inevitably the British press discovered him, resulting in a media circus that left the RAF no choice but to discharge him.

In March of 1923 he enlisted in the ranks in the Tank Corps, using his political influence under legally adopted pseudonym of Private Thomas Edward Shaw, in honour of his close friend George Bernard. He soon became depressed at living on base at Bovington Camp and in the summer of 1923, Lawrence found a little 19th Century cottage just a mile from camp called Clouds Hill. He rented it immediately.

His friend Robert Graves introduced Lawrence to Thomas Hardy after sending a letter to Hardy who he greatly admired. Despite Hardy being 48 years senior to Lawrence they soon became good friends. Both were deeply private, celebrities, but uncomfortable with the fame. They shared a love of the Dorset countryside and Lawrence loved Hardy’s work and owned every novel he had published in his small. library at Clouds Hill. Almost every weekend he would ride his Brough Superior Motorcycle to Hardy’s home Max Gate, always introducing himself to anyone locally as Private Shaw. It was said that Lawrence was the only guest that Hardy’s fiercely territorial terrier, Wessex, never attempted to bite.

Both Hardy and his second wife Florence were also frequent visitors to Clouds Hill, where his litterary friends such as E.M Forster and George Bernard Shaw would sit around the fire in the small brown room, drinking tea and listening to classical music on his wind-up gramophone. A shared love of flowers, especially rhododendrons, led to an enduring friendship between Florince and Lawrence that outlived Hardy himself.

Clouds Hill

When Thomas Hardy died in January 1928 Lawrence was genuinely devastated. He moved from being a family friend to a genuine emotional anchor for his widow who was unconsolable for a time. However, given Lawrence was re-posted to India soon after the funeral that support took the form of frequent correspondence. In April 1928 Lawrence wrote to comfort her;

“You say you failed him at every turn. Of course you did; everybody did. He was T.H. and if you’d met him or sufficed him at every turn you’d have been as good as T.H. which is absurd.”

Hardy had ghostwritten his own biography in his wife’s name and Lawrence made sure she got the credit for the books and offered her literary guidance as she went through the publication process for ‘The Early Years and the Later Years of Thomas Hardy.’

They remained close friends until Lawrence’s death in a motorcycle accident on 19th May 1935. He was 46 years old.

My book ‘Walking in the Footsteps of TE Lawrence’ is out on 28th October 2026 by Troubadour Publishers.