Lawrence letter up for auction (From St Albans & Harpenden Review)

Lawrence letter up for auction

1:13pm Tuesday 10th February 2004 in News By Alex Lewis

A LETTER from Lawrence of Arabia to explorer Apsley Cherry-Garrard, who lived near Wheathampstead, is expected to fetch about $12,000 (£6,600) at auction.

The letter, dated April 4, 1927, will be auctioned by Christie's in New York on February 26.

TE Lawrence, famous for his dramatic adventures in the First World War, when he fought with Arabs rebelling against the Turkish army, wrote to Cherry-Garrard, who lived in Lamer Park, to compliment him on his book, The Worst Journey in the World.

In the two-page letter, written from Karachi, Pakistan, where Lawrence was serving with the RAF, he told Cherry-Garrard: "I think your book is one of the great travel books".

It was an account of the disastrous 1912 expedition to Antarctica which resulted in the death of the leader Captain Robert Scott and his companions.

Cherry-Garrard was the expedition's assistant biologist, although fortunately for him he did not join the party that made the ill-fated journey to the South Pole.

Lawrence was linked to Cherry-Garrard by the explorer's near-neighbour Bernard Shaw, who wrote in a review that both had the rare combination of being men of action who were also good writers. Cherry-Garrard lived in Lamer Park until 1947 and died in 1959.

The letter is being sold as part of Lawrence memorabilia accumulated by American collector Harry Spiro.