42 LAWRENCE, T.E. Seven Pillars of Wisdom , together with an archive of over 200 pieces of ephemera and photographs relating to Lieutenant Samuel H. Brodie’s service with Lawrence during the Arab Revolt. [London: privately printed by Manning Pike and C. J. Hodgson,] 1926 Lawrence’s “big book” – with a quite stunning archive of original photographs assembled by his “silent Scotsman” Outstandingly provenanced exemplar of one of the few purposely incomplete copies of the subscribers’ edition, presented by Lawrence to brother-in-arms Lieutenant Samuel H. Brodie; accompanied by a genuinely immersive archive of material that draws us into the world of a serving soldier during the Arab Revolt, in particular the famed assault on the Hejaz Railway, of singular importance in prising open the Ottoman grip on the region. This copy of Seven Pillars is inscribed on a preliminary blank in the hand of Brodie’s mother: “Samuel H. Brodie from Colonel T. E. Lawrence, December 1926”, and is one of 32 incomplete subscribers’ copies, from a total edition of 211, intentionally issued in this way under Lawrence’s instructions. These copies were to be reserved and “presented to the men who had served with him in Arabia and who were not able to pay the high price asked for the complete issue” (O’Brien, p. 32); the intentional omission of a number of plates served to prevent these copies from devaluing those that were issued complete. Inscribed by Lawrence at the foot of, p. XIX: “Incomplete copy I.XII.26 TES”, and although lacking the majority of the plates called for in the list of illustrations, this copy does include the “Prickly Pear” plate, most often lacking; page XV is mispaginated as VIII. In Lawrence’s words, Lieutenant Samuel Henry Brodie MC, an indefatigable Scottish artilleryman who rose through the ranks, “seemed able to pick up his unit, and carry it forward with him over every obstacle. On every occasion and in every crisis they were always in place at the right moment”. During the Arab Revolt Brodie served as a lieutenant in the Royal Field Artillery (RFA), his unit based at Azrak, an oasis near Aqaba, the jumping off point for Lawrence’s famous raids on the Hejaz Railway. Brodie commanded the Ten-Pounder Talbot Battery attached to the Hejaz
Armoured Car Company (see “Nominal Roll: Hejaz Armoured Car Company”, Seven Pillars of Wisdom , Appendix I). Lawrence gives a vivid description of Brodie and his mountain gun unit, which was carried on Talbot light trucks: “This section was an oddment which General Clayton [chief of intelligence, Egypt] had seen in Egypt, and had sent down to us in an inspired moment. Its six Talbots, specially geared for heavy work, carried two ten-pounders with British gunners. It was wicked to give good men such rotten tools; yet their spirit seemed hardly affected
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