Historical excerpts: Lawrence of Arabia captures Damascus in 1918

CAIRO – 2 October 2022: On October 1, 1918, a joint Arab-British force managed to wrest Damascus from the Turks during the First World War and complete the liberation of the Arabian Peninsula. Thomas Edward Lawrence, a British soldier known as Lawrence of Arabia, was at the head of the joint force.

An Oxford-educated Briton in Tremadog, Wales, Lawrence began serving in the British Army as an intelligence officer in Egypt in 1914 and spent more than a year in Cairo.

In 1916, he accompanied a British diplomat to the Arabian Peninsula, where Hussein bin Ali, prince of Mecca, declared a revolution against the Turkish rule, and Lawrence persuaded his superiors to help the prince, according to History, and was sent to join the Arab army led by Hussein's son Faisal as a liaison officer.

Under the direction of Lawrence, the Arabs waged an effective war against the Turkish lines, proved to be a talented military strategist, and was greatly admired by the Bedouins of the Arabian Peninsula.

In July 1917, Arab forces captured Aqaba, and Lawrence was promoted to lieutenant colonel. In November, he was captured by the Turks while scouting enemy lines in Arab dress and was tortured and abused before escaping.

Lawrence returned to his army, which slowly made its way north to Damascus. Australian forces under Henry Chauvel fought their way to Damascus and reached the outpost before Lawrence and his men, but departed shortly in pursuit of fleeing Turkish units. The Syrian capital became in the hands of Lawrence of Arabia and Arab forces on October 1, 1918.