We recently watched the film Lawrence of Arabia as part of our ongoing movie research. The film starts with the death of Lawrence as he’s zooming through the English country side on his motorcycle. According to Wikipedia: “A dip in the road obstructed his view of two boys on their bicycles; he swerved to avoid them, lost control and was thrown over the handlebars of his motorcycle. He died six days later.”
The article goes on to reference an interesting neurosurgery article by Nicholas Maartens (and others):
“When Colonel T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) was fatally injured in a motorcycle accident in May 1935, one of the several doctors attending him was a young neurosurgeon, Hugh Cairns. He was moved by the tragedy in a way that was to have far-reaching consequences. At the beginning of the Second World War, he highlighted the unnecessary loss of life among army motorcycle dispatch riders as a result of head injuries. His research concluded that the adoption of crash helmets as standard by both military and civilian motorcyclists would result in considerable saving of life. It was 32 years later, however, that motorcycle crash helmets were made compulsory in the United Kingdom. As a consequence of treating T.E. Lawrence and through his research at Oxford, Sir Hugh Cairns’ work largely pioneered legislation for protective headgear by motorcyclists and subsequently in the workplace and for many sports worldwide. Over subsequent decades, this has saved countless lives.”
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Hurray for the British surgeon, Hugh Cairns! All mothers and fathers should thank him for the research and getting helmets to become a reality.
Mom disapproves that you have neglected this blog for a month. You are probably not even preparing anymore, since you are not documenting it.
I am not so sure that you are not evil as you claim (or disclaim) below.
T.E. Lawrence’s book, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, is one of the 10 great un-read books in the English language. He is reputed to have left the manuscript (litterally, hand-written) on the subway, and rewritten a second time from scratch.
I have not read it, but it’s now on the list. He’s a fascinating figure – I’m sure it would be an interesting read.