After leaving the Army and a short period of  Diplomatic service with Winston Churchill as Colonial Secretary, Lawrence changed his name to John Hume Ross and enlisted into the Royal Airforce, but was discovered by the Press and later discharged, as having used a false identity to join. Lawrence/Ross then changed his name officially to T.E. Shaw and bought Cloud’s Hill, a tiny Dorset cottage in 1923.

Here Lawrence/Shaw could forget his worries and escape the outside world concerns, (ou øpovtis) during his brief service with the Royal Tank Corps at Bovington Camp, a short distance from his cottage.

Following Lawrence’s/ Shaw’s death in 1935, after a motorcycle accident, Cloud’s Hill was given by the family to the National Trust, who still own and maintain the cottage opening to visitors from all over the world.

Lawrence/Shaw had been riding home on his Brough Superior SS100, and on approaching the cottage entrance, collided with two delivery boys on bicycles and was thrown from his bike. After six days in a coma, he passed away at the age of 46.

Each colour of the tartan tells a story and represents a facet of Lawrence’s life acting as a colourful visual narrative or ‘aide memoir’ to the span of his life.

The predominant Orange-Brown colour represents part of what was the Hejaz region of the Middle East most associated with Lawrence called Wadi Rum, now in the Royal Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Cloud’s Hill, Lawrence’s Dorset home interior hues and ambience are also evoked in the warm colours.

The orange colour also represents the Ancient Cromarty tartan from the Isle of Skye in Scotland and the Scottish ancestral connections of Lawrence’s maternal line.

Green and Blue bands of colour highlight the Irish family connections. Lawrence’s father was an Anglo-Irish Baronet whose real name was Sir Thomas Robert Tighe Chapman, 7th Baron of  Killua Castle in County Westmeath, now in the Republic of Ireland. The Green band of colour also reflects Ireland’s reputation for being affectionately known as the ‘Emerald Isle’, but the National Colour of Ireland is St. Patrick’s blue, and also represents the ancient colours of the Kingdom of Meath.

The tartan’s Red band of colour dually represents England and Wales; Wales through Lawrence’s birthplace at Tremadog, and Lawrence’s mother’s paternal line that came from Swansea. The English Alliance is shown through the Red Cross of St. George, Emblem of England, and banner of King Richard, ‘Lionheart’. Lawrence much admired the crusading King, and medieval knights, and was awarded a First Class Honours degree for his thesis on Medieval Crusader Castles, whilst studying archaeology at Jesus College Oxford.

Blue bands of colour also signify the two periods of Lawrence/ Shaw’s enlistment in the Royal Air Force; the narrow band is the briefest period, and the widest band, the final longest period of service.

The Khaki colours are achieved through the overlay of the other colours, as they reveal seven bands or ‘Pillars’ of Khaki, which was the colour of  British Army Uniform. Khaki colouring also alludes to Lawrence/ Shaw’s army service, including his brief period of enlistment in the Tank Corps as the narrow band, but also more significantly, to Lawrence’s literary masterpiece, the Seven Pillars of Wisdom.