EARLY 20TH CENTURY

This agal was given to by Lawrence to his friend, Clare Sydney-Smith, wife of his commanding officer at RAF Cattewater, Plymouth Sound and author of a memoir of Lawrence. In March 1929, Lawrence was posted to RAF Cattewater (later renamed RAF Mount Batten, at his instigation), where his commanding officer was Wing Commander Sydney Smith, whom Lawrence had first met at the Paris Peace Conference and who had later organised the covert disembarkation of Lawrence from the Rajputana, upon his return from India. Lawrence became firm friends with his commanding officer and his family, particularly Mrs Clare Sydney Smith, and he described this period at Cattewater as 'The Golden Reign' -- a phrase Clare Sydney Smith later used as the title of her memoir of Lawrence.