THE last surviving brother of one of the two boys involved in the crash that killed T E Lawrence has criticised a new film being made about his death.

Dennis Fletcher, aged 87 who lives in Wareham, says the new film called Lawrence after Arabia is ‘just trying to make money’ by speculating the cause of the famous soldier’s death.

His brother Frank was involved in the fatal crash that killed Lawrence in 1935, along with another local boy named Albert Hargeaves.

At the time, Lawrence had been riding his motorcycle back from Bovington Camp when he swerved to avoid the two boys and died.

Both boys survived, but Mr Fletcher said the media attention over Lawrence’s high-profile death had an impact on his brother’s life.

He said: “If the film company is still looking for information or to find out that it was some sort of assassination, I think they’re barking up the wrong tree.

“Many films and books have been written about it and it all comes to nothing. They’re just out to make money.

“Along the line it has got to stop. If they are not happy about how he died, then they need to go back to the coroner, who will tell them that it was an accidental death.

“It’s been going on too long, what more do they want. They’re still trying to say he was murdered or whatever, but it just didn’t happen that way. The film company needs to mind what they put in the film because if there’s anything about an assassination or chains across the road then it’s all a load of rubbish. My family has lived with it. I was only three and a half years old at the time of the crash, but it’s still going on now.”

The director of Lawrence After Arabia, Mark J T Griffin, said the film is primarily a biopic of the last year’s of Lawrence’s life.

He said: “We show the incident as an accident and possible assassination and we then let the viewer decide. The film doesn’t seek to allocate blame and looks at the events and Lawrence’s life leading up to the crash.”

“I read the inquest very early in my analysis. The timing is thought provoking - it’s difficult to read the transcript and not to think the verdict seems to have been predetermined - and there is evidence that Neville- Jones, the coroner, was under pressure to come to a verdict quickly - the funeral in the afternoon followed the morning’s inquest a few hours later that same day.”

“I believe Albert Hargreaves and Frank Fletcher’s involvement was bad luck. They were in the wrong place at the wrong time and were not the cause. TE Lawrence’s Brough was already out of control when he had passed the car and he was already taking evasive action.”

He added: “While the film won’t necessarily solve the mystery surrounding T.E. Lawrence’s death it will perhaps ask new questions and moreover focus again on a man who’s life was extraordinary and has lessons for us all.”