Film raises questions about death of a hero
CONSPIRACY theories involving Britain’s secret service abound. But a new film claims to have evidence that Lawrence of Arabia’s death in a motorcycle crash in Dorset in 1935 was no accident.
After Arabia, a new feature film which premiered at Lighthouse Poole on Saturday, asks a key question: was one of England’s greatest war heroes Lawrence of Arabia (T E Lawrence) assassinated by the British Service, or did he die in a tragic motorcycle accident?
Director/writer Mark J T Griffin’s opinion is clear: Lawrence, who died on May 19, 1935 after being fatally injured in motorcycle crash, was – probably – the first state-sponsored murder by the British Secret Service.
Alex Younger, former Chief of MI6, said: “There is a mantra that surrounds Secret Service history that reads, ‘Our successes are private, our failures are public’.” In 1935 the public would have suspected nothing.
Lawrence died six days after his crash on May 13, 1935 from injuries sustained when he lost control of his
Brough Superior SS100 motorcyle – at the time the Rolls-Royce of motorcycles – and careered into the back of two boys on bicycles.
A black car passed Lawrence going in the opposite direction and the crash occurred immediately afterwards, suggesting that the car interfered with the motorcycle, according to the film. The black car was never traced and the police, special branch and secret service seemed to make little effort to find it.
One of the boys told the local press he had seen the car, then immediately changed his story after pressure from secret service agents who were seemingly on the scene immediately, according to the film. There were also soldiers who saw the car and the most senior, Corporal Ernest Catchpole, gave evidence regarding the vehicle at the inquest even when challenged by the coroner three times if he wanted to change his story.
According to the film, we then have a simple statement by the George Brough, the manufacturer of the motorcycle, to say it was “mechanically sound”. However in 1985 George Brough said he had declined to give evidence at the inquest as he was not able to explain that the bike had damage and black paint on the petrol tank and handlebars was consistent with it being struck.
Lawrence’s own position on the very narrow 13 foot-wide road, on the extreme left rather than right, suggests an oncoming vehicle and that he was trying to avoid something.
Lawrence had left the RAF in February
1935, but only 11 weeks later, he was dead. In the period, now out of the control of the military, as an agitator he had begun to build bridges with the Arabs in support of their revolt in Palestine which in the year after Lawrence’s death was put down violently by the British administration.
He was talking with Churchill and others about an intelligence directorship to co-ordinate the work of police, special branch and secret services in preparation for war. A role which Sir Vernon Kell, who had founded and led the secret service from 1911, would have found intolerable, certainly someone who was
potentially gay, Irish, a bastard and had no standing in British society.
On the day of Lawrence’s death he had sent a telegram to the author Henry Williamson confirming a meeting the next day to discuss a meeting with Lawrence and Hitler that would avoid a second world war. Perhaps it was this action which would have been highly embarrassing for the British establishment and was the final straw which tipped the balance and the “word was given”.
The multi-award-winning independent biopic – the first about Lawrence in 25 years and completed on a small budget – has faced resistance from the National Trust who originally refused to allow filming at his cottage at Cloud’s Hill as it was “perpetuating conspiracy theories”. It has absolutely no support of the T E Lawrence Society through its threeyear development, who issued a terse paragraph telling their members of the film’s release “they were not involved in any way in the film”.
The words “conspiracy theory” are seemingly used to discount and discredit out of hand any new view of the facts rather than consider them rationally and with contemporary optics, historical context and what has been learnt since.
In 1935 the idea that Lawrence could have been murdered would have been unthinkable by a public whose main access to news was through weekly newsreels and local newspapers. It would have been easy to sell the line of “tragic death of a hero just into retirement”. Even so there have always been doubts – certainly locally. Through the optics of 2021 where state assassination is a regular occurrence this is much more plausible.
The inquest was held at 10am on Tuesday – Lawrence’s death was on the Sunday, the coroner having been called on the morning of the inquest by a senior government member and asked to make sure the case was wrapped up and in his opening statements he guided the jury that he expected them to pass a verdict of “accidental death”. In his closing statement he said that the discrepancy of witnesses to the black car was “unsatisfactory”. Today the coroner would have instructed the police to find the vehicle.
The funeral was held the same day just three hours later giving the coroner little opportunity to leave an open verdict. The great and the good including Churchill, Lady Astor, Lord Lloyd and others arrived on a special train for the funeral at 2pm. The case was closed and any embarrassment or awkward questions avoided.
With no television and poor literacy, the only moving pictures people saw at that time were in weekly newsreels shown at the cinemas. In the 1930s the idea of the government lying to the people would have been unthinkable – trust in authority was unquestionable – even the newsreel of Lawrence’s funeral has a Putinesque air to it. Now, sadly, governments lying to their citizens is the new ‘normal’, the basis of a contemporary political culture and have become a distasteful everyday occurrence.
T E Lawrence is portrayed by Dorset actor Tom Barber Duffy as a broken hero, having flashbacks to his time in Arabia, suffering from PTSD, retiring from the RAF and trying to live in seclusion, but hounded by the press. He has premonitions of his impending death and friends warn him of the danger.
The film with such a low budget uses stars sparingly – Brian Cox (Succession, Bourne, X-Men) is the Narrator and also the voice of Lawrence’s father, Hugh Fraser (Sharpe, Poirot) is Lord Allenby, Michael Maloney (The Crown) is George Brough. Nicole Ansari Cox stands out as a brutal Sarah Lawrence, Lawrence’s overbearing mother.
The electronic soundtrack by Clifford White includes pieces by keyboard wizard Rick Wakeman especially written for the film. The end title’s song After Arabia sung by Chris Thompson (Manfred Mann’s Earthband) is a sing-a-long anthem.
The film has won multiple awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Soundtrack at various film festivals.
The production values defy its tiny budget. The film uses valuable Brough Superior motorcycles, vintage aircraft, and locations which Lawrence would have known, including his own cottage after the National Trust finally granted permission to film after Griffin’s dogged requests.
The film has been “gifted” to Lighthouse Poole by the filmmaker for the red-carpet gala premiere to raise money for the venue, which operates as a charity and as a thank you to Dorset for its support. There will be pre-release screenings around Dorset and the South West and the rest of the UK prior to a general release in November.
Those involved hope the film, and a new understanding of the death of one of England’s great heroes, gets the wider attention it deserves.