Page 78 - br-june-2021

June 2021

LAWRENCE OF ARABIA AND
TURNERSPUDDLE

Turnerspuddle Parish has been host to two historic figures in British history, namely
Sir Austen Chamberlain and T.E.Lawrence, otherwise ‘Lawrence of Arabia’, who
occupied Clouds Hill from1923 to his untimely death in 1935.
Having renounced the world of war, politics and fame, even changing his name
to T.E.Shaw, in despair he entered the Army as a private soldier at Bovington in
1922. He was allowed to rejoin his beloved Royal Air Force in 1925, but meantime
he formed a very deep affection for Dorset and the area his friend Thomas Hardy
called ‘ Egdon Heath’.

One day when walking with a fellow tankman he discovered Clouds Hill Cottage
then being restored by the Knowles family for their own use. Lawrence, then in
the throes of writing his
memoirs of the Arab
Revolt, was looking for a
space and quiet away
from Barracks and had
taken a room in Bovington
Village. But it seems
possible the cottage may
have sparked the idea of
a more permanent refuge
with it’s prospect of
tranquillity.
He approached Ex.
Sergeant Knowles with a
proposal to rent the
cottage with an offer to help finance repairs. After a week’s careful deliberation
Mr. Knowles, who would not have known Lawrence, agreed, making him a sub-
tennant as the property was actually owned by the Framptons of Moreton.
Lawrence subsequently bought the freehold from his distant relatives the
Framptons in 1927. However, this began an enduring friendship with the Knowles
family.
In 1925 Lawrence rejoined the R.A.F. and lead an itinerant life always returning to
Clouds Hill, even for an odd hour, when in transit from camp to wherever. Clouds
Hill was becoming his home and he initiated long term alterations to fit the place
exactly to his specifications as a single man obsessed with books and music.
Many of the works were carried out by his neighbour Arthur Knowles, a capable
carpenter, who built his own bungalow across the road. But, of course, Lawrence
also used local builders such as Messers Bugg of Bovington. He installed what

78