Lawrence of Arabia Medal
The Lawrence of Arabia Medal was an award conferred by the Royal Society for Asian Affairs.
History
The Lawrence of Arabia Medal was established in 1935 in honour of Lawrence of Arabia to recognise "work of outstanding merit in the fields of exploration, research or literature" by British subjects.The final award was made in 2016, to the explorer Michael Asher. In 2025, the RSAA decided that since the medal celebrated activities that were mainly connected with Britain's imperial past, and because it had been awarded only infrequently in recent decades, it should be discontinued.
Recipients
The medal was awarded 32 times between 1936 and 2016:- 1936: John Bagot Glubb
- 1937: Charles Bell
- 1938: Claude Scudamore Jarvis
- 1939: Harold Ingrams and Doreen Ingrams
- 1940: Frederick Peake
- 1941: C. E. Corry
- 1942: Mildred Cable
- 1943: Orde Wingate
- 1944: Ursula Graham Bower
- 1947: Charles Pawsey
- 1948: Henry Holland
- 1949: Freddie Spencer Chapman
- 1953: John Hunt, Baron Hunt
- 1954: Wilfred Thesiger
- 1960: Violet Dickson
- 1961: Stephen Hemsley Longrigg
- 1964: Nevill Barbour
- 1965: Hugh Boustead
- 1966: Charles Belgrave
- 1971: Seton Lloyd
- 1986: Sandy Gall
- 2016: Michael Asher