ALS in pencil, signed “T. E. S.,” three pages on two adjoining sheets, 6.75 x 8.5, January 16, 1933. Letter to Wing Commander T. B. Marson, written from Plymouth, in full: "It pours work now. This Iris crash—I'm mixed into it again. My specialty—Iris crashes. I'm sorry about this. Suggest that one of BB's scribes read your book, and consider the value of its publication in helping his lord's campaign. Tell them it's powder and shot for them. I'm also sorry about my own inadequacy in criticising it. Had I been feeling more cheerful, I would have tried to be more useful to you. Money lent bothers the borrower, not the lender. So you have the cure for it in your own mind. Don't cause anyone hardship to preserve your pride. Yet £200 is only a trifle, I'm afraid. I was at Donibristle last year. Not bad: Firth of Forth. Lovely views & clean country. A very bad C. O. just going away. But Civil Adjutant is not a good job, in pay. I am sorry. Can't you see some better agency (like the Ellesmere, but with decent people) to lay hold of?" In very good to fine condition, with light creasing and a slightly rough right edge.
In the 1930s, Lawrence's service in the Royal Air Force brought him to RAF Mount Batten near Plymouth, where he specialized in the development and testing of armored boats. While there, he witnessed the 1931 crash of the Iris III—a three-engined biplane flying boat—during its approach over the Plymouth Sound, which killed nine of the twelve aboard. Lawrence was forced to testify before a public inquest, which he skillfully navigated: describing what he observed while protecting his commander, and at the same time pointing out much-needed safety reforms to the Air Ministry.
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