Aircraftsman Shaw, formerly T. E. Lawrence, spent a period stationed at Mountbatten near Plymouth during the mid 1920s. Having enlisted under an assumed name, he sought anonymity after his years of public attention in the Middle East. His time in Devon and Cornwall was marked by routine RAF duties, mechanical work, and occasional visits to acquaintances in the region.
Among those acquaintances were the Eliots, who lived at Port Eliot, St German’s. Shaw travelled from Mountbatten to St German’s Bay in a small motor boat which he had designed for the RAF to assist with the retrieval of aircrews from flying boats that might have encountered difficulties in Plymouth Sound. The boat reflected his interest in practical engineering. A surviving photograph shows Shaw with Mrs Sydney Smith, the boat on the River Tiddy, and the St German’s viaduct in the background.
Mrs Smith, Clare Sydney Smith (1896–1981), lived on the base at Mountbatten with her husband, the Fabian writer Sydney Smith. She was also a friend of George Bernard Shaw. According to Jeremy Wilson she “was totally besotted with Lawrence, almost certainly to the extent of seeking carnal love,” a situation which, according to George Bernard Shaw, “terrified” him. Shaw presented himself as asexual in response. In a letter to Lady Astor in 1934 he wrote, “Mrs … wrote to me ever so often at first. I have sent two notes back. Am I a beast? But she wants something which I want to keep, and she ought to understand it. There are Untouchables, thank Heaven, still, despite the Gandhi's of the world.” Clare later wrote that he “was able to have a deep friendship for a woman – myself – based on the closest ties of sympathy and understanding, but containing none of the elements normally associated with love. No effort on his part was needed to do this. His presence was hardly a physical one and he never seemed to be aware of oneself physically.”
Another factor was that Shaw had no wish to become involved with the wife of his commanding officer. When the Smiths were later posted from Plymouth to RAF Manston in Kent, Sydney Smith attempted to have him transferred there as well, almost certainly at Clare’s urging. Shaw ensured that the request was declined.
But his love of boats and speed ensured that he was a regular visitor to places like Port Eliot which were in easy reach of RAF Mountbatten.
