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Continuing to pursue a policy of neutrality in spite of continued provocation, he delivered his famous ‘Peace without Victory’ speech in January 1917. However, at the end of that same month, Germany dropped any pretence that that it would show any restraint towards ‘neutral shipping’ – officially making any merchant vessel a target for U-boats – when a message from the German Foreign Minister, Dr Arthur Zimmerman, was intercepted. It revealed plans to recommence unrestricted submarine warfare and proposed an alliance between Germany and Mexico if America entered the war, with a promise that the disputed ownership of the lands of Texas and Arizona would be resolved by handing them back to Mexico. When this news was leaked by British intelligence, isolationist feelings dissolved and had the desired effect for the cause of the Allies. Fury ensued in the US following the sinking of three cargo vessels in March 1917, forcing Wilson to abandon his neutral stance. American forces were soon on their way to Europe after the President reluctantly approached Congress to endorse a declaration of war on Germany. He won their full support with an eloquent address, accepting that, ‘The world must be made safe for democracy’.

18
LAWRENCE OF ARABIA
They Came to Baghdad
    Fakir Carmichael is modelled on soldier, scholar and Arabist T.E. Lawrence.
    The Agatha Christie Collection No. 42, They Came to Baghdad
    Agatha Christie’s light-hearted thriller They Came to Baghdad (1951) features a multilingual member of British intelligence, Henry ‘Fakir’ Carmichael, a character based on the real-life persona of the enigmatic T.E. Lawrence (1888-1935). The real-life hero turned down a recommendation for the Victoria Cross and the offer of a knighthood for his role as guerrilla leader of the Arab Revolt against Germany’s allies, the Turks, during the First World War. The ‘Uncrowned King of the Desert’ was a brilliant scholar, philosopher, archaeologist, linguist, author, diplomat and statesman who shunned fame and fortune to become an aircraft mechanic in what was a forlorn attempt to escape the charismatic image he had engendered as the world-renowned ‘Lawrence of Arabia’.
    One of Lawrence’s ancestors was the cousin of Sir Walter Raleigh, a connection of which he was extremely proud. Therefore, it was fitting that in February 1929 Lawrence journeyed to the county of Raleigh’s birth to be stationed at RAF Mountbatten, Plymouth. In an effort to escape undue attention he had assumed the alias ‘Shaw’, in honour of one of his great friends, Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw, who introduced him to the vivacious Lady Nancy Astor. She was one of the most glamorous figures of the interwar period and had the distinction of being the first female to enter Parliament after women had been given their long overdue right to vote in 1918. She succeeded her husband, Waldorf, as member for Plymouth Sutton when he moved to the Lords, and continued to serve the city until she retired from politics in 1945.
    Lawrence was asexual and a cynical woman-hater, but became an ardent admirer of American-born Nancy and her incredible zest for life. She was the only female allowed to ride pillion on his motorbike. The pair would often shoot off on his powerful 1,000cc Brough Superior for a high-speed ride around the city and boasted of reaching speeds of 90mph along Plymouth Embankment. In October 1930, Lawrence wrote to tell Nancy how he had overtaken a Bentley sports car ‘which only did 88’ on Salisbury Plain: ‘I wished I had had a peeress or two on my flapper bracket’.
    Lawrence called his bike Boanerges (meaning ‘Sons of Thunder’, the name which Jesus gave to two of his disciples, James and John), but his love of speed was to cause his tragic death shortly after his discharge from the RAF in March 1935. Taking up residence at Cloud’s Hill, a rented cottage in Dorset, he found it difficult to face an uncertain future and