Outside the rules

At 6ft 3in tall, Winterton was an imposing figure, but even he was overshadowed, metaphorically speaking, by Thomas Edward Lawrence, the famous Lawrence of Arabia.

Having served with the Sussex Yeomanry at Gallipoli and in Palestine, Winterton joined the Imperial Camel Corpsand helped ferment the Arab Revolt.

Lawrence managed to forge an uneasy alliance between the fragmented Arab tribes, which was used with devastating effect against the Turkish Army.

It was a savage guerilla campaign, overshadowed by great slaughter, suffering and hunger, where no quarter was asked for or given.

Looking back many years later, Winterton recalled: "We risked certain death as spies if captured by the enemy and the Arabs risked death by torture.

"Like them (the Arabs), we endured great strain and hardship and the chance of starvation for we had no supply line.

There was no hospital to which we could be taken if seriously wounded.

"We were on our own. We were responsible only to our own consciences for our conduct, constantly blowing up railways and destroying telegraph wires, we could indulge in a love of destruction which had lain latent in us since we were small boys.

"We were in fact outside the rules, which is always exhilarating.

"The other noteworthy feature of the campaign was the personality of TE Lawrence. At intervals, attacks by men of lesser mind are made upon his reputation and claim to fame.

"They brush aside the admiration which we who served with him had for his genius and the great influence which he had over our Arab allies.

"I have worked directly under many eminent men. Of these, in my judgement, only Churchill exceeds Lawrence in stature.

"He had great bodily resilience and was impervious to fatigue. When others were exhausted by continuous effort of hours without sleep, and harassment of every kind, he could at any time of night or day present his case for a particular action with complete clarity.

He also shared with Churchill the highest pinnacle of moral and physical courage, with the power of inspiring the deepest affection and respect in his friends.

"In the time that I spent with him, which included a week when he and I were alone together, I only differed twice from him.

"It was the early morning of September 24, 1918, as Lawrence, an Arab officer called Jemil and I set out in two armoured cars with British crews to reconnoitre and, if possible, blow up a section of the Hejaz railway.

"I felt sulky and angry. We had recently blown up and rendered useless whole stretches of this single-line railroad. I did not feel that it could any longer be of any material use to the enemy.

"The reason for my state of mind was that I suspected Lawrence of wanting a fight for a fight's sake which, indeed, a good soldier should. I, on the contrary, was willing to fight when military necessity made it unavoidable but had no love of fighting as such.

"To be honest with myself, I felt a particular dislike on the day in question to being killed.

"Despite weeks of tension, excitement, fatigue and a diet consisting mainly of unleavened Arab bread and dates, I felt the joy of living which I always experience in the desert which I loved.

"In the desert there were vast empty spaces to traverse, you had clean sand under you and absolutely pure air to breath, (except during dust storms).

"You could sleep on that sand at night peacefully and soundly, knowing you wouldn't be disturbed by mosquitoes or any other insects.

"The desert Arabs differed as much in character from those in the slums in Cairo as a Highland shepherd from a tenement dweller in Glasgow. They might be poor and ignorant but they were natural gentlemen like most people of all races who for generations have battled against nature in the wilds."

Winterton said Lawrence went on ahead to check Turkish positions and came under machine gun fire and shelling from a small fort.

Despite the war drawing to a close on the Western Front, Lawrence ordered an immediate attack.

Winterton recalled: "My sulkiness turned to intense fear and indignation and I found myself trembling. 'How on earth,' I said, 'are we to get into range without being killed? They'll spot us and blow us to blazes with their guns before we can put a bullet into the blockhouse'."

In sweltering heat, Lawrence ordered the attack anyway and bullets soon began to rattle against the outside of Winterton's car.

But almost as soon as the assault had begun it was over, after Lawrence suddenly withdrew and ordered a return to base.

There was no explanation but Winterton was clearly relieved.

"I felt very relaxed as well as restored to good humour as we speeded back over the flat surface of the plain. Suddenly, we came upon the rare sight, in this arid part of the desert, of three gazelles.

"I told the armoured car officer to chase them and try and kill one with our Lewis gun as we hadn't tasted meat for more than a week.

"As soon as we were in range, we opened fire but missed as the gazelle jinked from side to side. He had only just started firing when Lawrence's car came roaring up alongside us with signals to halt.

"Lawrence, looking extremely angry, got out of the car and said he would not have the gazelles molested in this way. It was cruel and unfair in the extreme to try to kill them with a Lewis gun, even for a foxhunter (a sport which Winterton loved).

"All my inward indignation at Lawrence's attitude returned after this rebuke and the loss of the chance of a meat meal so I saluted with exaggerated decorum and said 'Very good, sir'.

"My sulkiness evaporated, however, before the day was over and my hero worship for Lawrence was renewed. I reflected as I settled down to sleep on my soft bed of sand how immensely I admired his imperturbable demeanour in the most exasperating circumstances.

"I thought, also, chuckling to myself, that it was typical of him to show one of his rare bursts of anger at the attempted destruction of a gazelle."

Just days before the Armistice, Winterton stepped in to stop the execution of about 200 Turkish prisoners by Arabs hell-bent on revenge after Lawrence declined to intervene, saying they should be allowed to settle the matter for themselves. After the war, Winterton took up his Westminster seat again and served the Horsham and Worthing division for a total of 47 years, having been first elected in November, 1904.

He died at the King Edward VII Sanatorium, Midhurst, in 1962, aged 79.

In May 1935, Lawrence swerved to avoid two cyclists while riding his motorcycle and was thrown from his machine. He suffered severe head injuries and died some days later, having never regained consciousness.

One historian wrote: "Lawrence had little wish to be remembered as a war hero. His enduring ambition was to be a writer. He once confessed his hope that, 'in the distant future, if the distant future deigns to consider my insignificance, I shall be appraised rather as a man of letters than a man of action'."