British Aid to the Arab Revolt


This photograph shows two British soldiers (Lt-Col Newcombe on the left and Lt. Hornby on the right) in Arab robes as part of a railway raiding party in the Hejaz. It testifies to the part the British played in the apparently spontaneous Arab Revolt.

From left to right it shows: Lt Col. Newcombe, Ahmed (Suida), Aziz, Lt Hornby and seated are Nurel Din, Abdu.

Lawrence wrote, (about Newcombe and Hornby): 'The persistent pair would cling for weeks to the railway edge, almost without helpers, often without food, till they had exhausted either explosives or camels, and had to return for more... Arabs told me Newcombe would not sleep except head on rails, and that Hornby would worry the metals with his teeth when gun cotton failed. they were legends, but behind them lay a sense of their joint insatiate savagery in destroying till there was no more to destroy.'


Lawrence and His Legacy


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by Stephen Luscombe