Newly released files have revealed a mystery woman in the life of Lawrence of Arabia, the great romantic hero of the desert conflict during World War I.

Confidential files made public for the first time on Tuesday show that for more than a year he paid out two-thirds of his salary to a woman living in Newark in Nottinghamshire.

The payments were made in the 1920s while Lawrence was serving under an assumed name in the Royal Air Force in an attempt to escape the fame generated by his desert exploits.

But Lawrence's biographer Jeremy Wilson, talking to BBC News Online, dismissed suggestions that the new files reveal a romantic link to the Welsh-born hero.

Lawrence was called Shaw in the RAF

Files released to the Public Record Office show that Lawrence arranged for two shillings a day (10p) from his daily pay of three shillings (15p) to be paid to a Miss Ruby Bryant, of 31 Portland Street.

The payments began in September 1925 and continued for just over a year until November 1926 while Lawrence was serving at nearby RAF Cranwell.

Miss Bryant has never been mentioned in any of Lawrence's biographies and his relationship with her and the reason for the payments can only be a matter of speculation.

Lawrence's generosity

Mr Wilson, who has written the authorised biography of Lawrence, said that Lawrence often donated money to people who suffered hardship.

"Lawrence gave away huge amounts of money to people in need.

Lawrence's dental records were also released

"He was unmarried and he probably felt he could afford to give away these funds.

"As an historian one of the great problems with Lawrence are the myths generated around him."

Whatever the truth of their relationship, Miss Bryant was aware of Lawrence's real identity, as she made clear in a letter to the Air Ministry.

"Kindly note the allotment made out to me on behalf of Colonel Lawrence (going under the name of Aircraftman Shaw) has not yet come to hand. This should have been due last Thursday," she wrote.

'Flagellation disorder'

To add to the intrigue, the day he cancelled the payments to Miss Bryant, Lawrence ordered a new set of payments of six pennies (2p) a day to another mystery character, WJ Ross of 76 Marsham Street, in London.

They continued for another year until Ross himself told the Air Ministry they were "no longer" required.

The files also show a further set of payments of nine pennies (3p) a day, again lasting over a year, to Lawrence's "minder" John Bruce, a Scottish man he had befriended in London in the early 1920s.

Years later, after Lawrence's death in a motorcycle accident in 1935 near his home in Dorset, Bruce disclosed that Lawrence, who had a "flagellation disorder", used to pay him to beat him with a birch.

The Public Record Office also released dental records of Lawrence and letters written by him.