THOMAS EDWARD LAWRENCE (1888-1935) -- HERBERT WILSON BAILEY (fl. 1914-1952)
VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price and at 1… Read more PROPERTY FROM THE ESTATE OF HERBERT WILSON BAILEY Lots 117-125 Herbert Wilson Bailey (fl.1914-1952), a private in the Machine Gun Corps with the Hejaz Armoured Car Company, served under Lawrence at Azrak, the oasis near Aqaba from where he led the raids to disrupt the Hejaz railway in 1917-1918 during the Arab Revolt (cf. 'Nominal Roll: Hejaz Armoured Car Company', Seven Pillars of Wisdom, 'Subscribers' Edition', 1926, p.655). The two men seemed to have lost contact after the war, but it resumed in February 1923, when Lawrence wrote to Bailey (cf. lot 121). When Lawrence eventually published the subscribers' edition of his account of the Arab Revolt in 1926, a number of copies were bound up without the plates for presentation by Lawrence to those who had served with him during the desert campaign (the omission of the plates was intended to prevent these copies from devaluing the subscribers' copies). However, Lawrence underestimated the number of copies required (possibly because, as his letter of 4 February 1923 suggests, he had lost touch with some of his wartime comrades), and he was obliged to present copies of the first American edition, of which only 22 copies were printed in order to secure copyright. Bailey's copy of this edition is offered here as lot 118, as well as Lawrence's letter of 17 August 1925 stating that 'I'm sending free copies of my Arabian yarn to the fellows who helped in the business' (for which see lot 122). Lawrence and Bailey continued to correspond, and the last letter from Lawrence dates from November 1934, some six months before his death (lot 125, partially published in David Garnett's Letters, a presentation copy of which is included in the lot -- only this and one other of these nine letters appear to have been published). Little is known of Bailey's subsequent life but some of these letters are addressed to him in Gloucestershire or Bristol and, after Lawrence's fatal accident, Bailey came to know both Sarah and Montagu Lawrence (the writer's mother and brother); in turn, following Bailey's death, Montagu Lawrence corresponded with his son, Lawrence F.W. Bailey.
THOMAS EDWARD LAWRENCE (1888-1935) -- HERBERT WILSON BAILEY (fl. 1914-1952)

Details
THOMAS EDWARD LAWRENCE (1888-1935) -- HERBERT WILSON BAILEY (fl. 1914-1952)

A collection of memorabilia relating to Herbert Wilson Bailey's service with Lawrence in the Hejaz Armoured Car Company during the Arab Revolt in 1917-1918, including:

the Arab headcovering (comprising a keffiyeh and agal) worn by Bailey during the campaign -- a piece of light brown cotton material, approximately 102cm. square and fringed, folded and roughly stitched into a triangle; and a double circlet of rope in blue and brown cotton, part covered with metallic thread; a photograph of Bailey in uniform and wearing the headdress, and 3 other photographs; an army dental mirror engraved with his initials; five letters by Montagu Robert Lawrence (1885-1971, T.E. Lawrence's elder brother) to Lawrence F.W. Bailey (the son of Herbert Wilson Bailey, in Canada), 2 February 1965-25 June 1971, in one recalling that he and his mother were on a riverboat in China when they received the news of Lawrence's death; a small autograph album; a watercolour sketch based upon Eric Kennington's portrait of Auda Abu Tayi (the Sheikh of the Howeitat) in the 1926 edition of Seven Pillars; and seven other items.

BAILEY'S KEFFIYEH WORN DURING THE ARAB REVOLT, together with letters from Lawrence's elder brother and other items. The keffiyeh, a form of light shawl worn by the Arabs as a headdress covering a round soft cap, is held in place by the decorative circlet of rope, the agal. In the 'Twenty-Seven Articles' to Lawrence's compendium for British officers working with Arabs (August 1917) he advised them to 'Wear an Arab headcloth when with a tribe. Bedu have a malignant prejudice against the hat ... if you wear a hat your best Arab friends will be ashamed of you in public'. (J. Wilson, Lawrence of Arabia, 1989, Appendix IV, p.963).

Montagu Robert Lawrence, always known to his family as 'Bob', studied medicine and became a medical missionary in China, where he was accompanied by his mother, from 1923-27 and 1932-35. It is not clear when they first met but he was in touch with H.W. Bailey and his son before World War II (the autograph album includes the signatures of Sarah and Montagu Lawrence dated October 1939). (21)
Special notice
VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price and at 15% on the buyer's premium

More from Exploration and Travel with the Polar Sale Including The Amundsen Collection

View All
View All