Oxford undergraduate to work on his senior thesis on Crusader castles, and returned after graduation to work as an archaeologist on an excavation sponsored by the British Museum. Lansdale would be, at best, an undistinguished student who did not display the intellectual brilliance—or the psychological fragility—of T. E. Lawrence, who admitted that “madness was very near” for him.2 But Lansdale’s school years did teach him lessons in character and leadership, striving and hustling that would help make possible his later exploits.
