Competition | 5 July 2008

In Competition No. 2551 you were invited to complete in verse or prose a letter by Noël Coward, ‘Dear 338171 (may I call you 338?)’, to Aircraftman Ross (aka T.E. Lawrence) and Lawrence’s reply.

First an apology. Bill Greenwell points out that Lawrence, though originally Aircraftman Ross, was serving as Aircraftman Shaw in a second RAF stint when Coward wrote this letter in 1930 (Shaw was also the name Lawrence used when he served in the Royal Tank Corps between the two RAF stints). All very complicated, as befits a very complex man. So for the purposes of this comp, both the Ross and the Shaw aliases are allowed.
Many entries successfully captured the contrast between the blithe spirit of Coward and the tortured soul that was Ross/Shaw/Lawrence. The winners, printed below, get £25 each while Basil Ransome-Davies wins the bonus fiver.

Dear 338171 (May I call you 338?),
I feel we are united by a queer caprice of fate.