The Melt: Aircraftman Shaw's Last Winter

First I will give you a moment in the desert. It is my letter of confidence, without which I am some uninteresting stranger you have happened upon...

After the end of the Great War, "Lawrence of Arabia", national hero and international figure, hid from celebrity by rejoining the armed forces at the lowest ranks under assumed names. In the winter of 1934/35, as Aircraftman Tom Shaw, he finished his military service on a project in Bridlington, on the Yorkshire coast.

Here, Tom Shaw tells his...