It's Lawrence of Olivier - mix-up over Dorset icon (From Dorset Echo)

It's Lawrence of Olivier - mix-up over Dorset icon

9:33am Friday 30th October 2009 in News By Martin Lea

ONE was an acclaimed actor and director while the other was a soldier and scholar known for his daring adventures during the First World War.

Somehow though Laurence Olivier and TE Lawrence seemed to have become mixed up in the mind of a person submitting a fascinating fact about Dorset.

To mark 1,000 days until the Olympic Games in 2012, the Team Dorset organisation asked people to come up with an interesting fact about the county.

The aim is to collect 1,000 facts and publish one each day on the Team Dorset website, other leading websites and through the local media, starting from tomorrow.

The Dorset Echo was among the organisations receiving a ‘media pack’ containing a list of facts for the first month, submitted by individuals, schools and community groups.

Eyebrows would undoubtedly be raised at fact number 25 which states: ‘Sir Laurence Olivier lived in Bovington and died in a motorcycle accident on Clouds Hill.’ Of course it was TE Lawrence, known as Lawrence of Arabia after his role in the Arab Revolt, who was fatally injured after being thrown over the handlebars of his Brough Superior near Bovington in May, 1935. Lawrence had earlier served at Bovington with the Royal Tank Corps.

The accident happened near his cottage at Clouds Hill, now run as a museum by the National Trust.

“Well I’ve never heard that one before,” chuckled John Hayward, deputy curator at Clouds Hill.

He added: “We get people turning up here who don’t know whose cottage it is and are pleasantly surprised when they find out.”

An amended version of the media pack was sent out when the blunder was spotted. A disclaimer is included in the pack which says Team Dorset is ‘not responsible for the validity or accuracy of any published fact.’ Team Dorset Legacy Manger Gary Fooks said: “Well done to the eagle-eyed Echo for picking this one up.

“It looks like we’ll have to be a bit more careful on checking the local knowledge of some of our contributors in future. “Although Sir Laurence was a Sussex man, we like to think he would forgive us for crediting his residence to Dorset – another equally beautiful English county.”

Laurence was set to portray Prince Faisal in David Lean’s classic 1962 film Lawrence of Arabia but dropped out. The role went to Alec Guinness.

Olivier was born in Surrey, but lived for much of his life in Sussex.

He was knighted in 1947 and, in 1971, became the first actor to receive a life peerage when he became the Baron Olivier of Brighton.