[Sierra Leone Content] – [Luke, Harry / Lukach, Harry] / Probyn, Sir Leslie.

Vintage Photograph of Harry Luke together with Sir Leslie Probyn, Governor of Sierra Leone from 1908-1910 (dated verso “Freetown, 1910”). The photograph shows a very young Harry Luke and was taken during Luke’s tenure as Private Secretary and Aide-de-Camp to Sir Leslie Probyn.

[This item is part of the Sir Harry Luke – Archive / Collection]. Freetown, Sierra Leone, 1910. Large Octavo. Photograph itself: 14 cm x 19 cm. / Mounted on carton 20 cm x 26,5 cm. From the private collection / library of colonial governor, diplomat and historian, Sir Harry Luke.

Sir Harry Charles Luke KCMG GCStJ (born Harry Charles Lukach) (4 December 1884 – 11 May 1969) was an official in the British Colonial Office. He served in Barbados, Cyprus, Transcaucasia, Sierra Leone, Palestine, Malta, the British Western Pacific Territories and Fiji. He is the author of some books on several of these countries. (Wikipedia)
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Sir Leslie Probyn KCMG (23 February 1862 – 17 December 1938) was an administrator for the British Empire.
Probyn was called to the bar at the Middle Temple in 1884. He began his career as a British colonial administrator in the Caribbean. From 1893 to 1896, he served as Attorney-General of British Honduras. In 1896, he was appointed Attorney General of Grenada. He was then moved to west Africa, serving successively as Secretary and Acting High Commissioner of Southern Nigeria (1901-1904) and governor of Sierra Leone (1904-1910).

In Sierra Leone, he increased native suffrage and sought to make sure that laws were not enacted without active native participation in the process. During his six years as governor of Sierra Leone (1904 to 1910) he held “referendums” amongst “natives” to judge whether or not there was popular support for policies amongst the indigenous population. As a matter of policy in Sierra Leone, Probyn would not enforce rules unless he felt that Sierra Leone’s native majority were in favor of them. As governor of Sierra Leone, Probyn took a stand against the practice of cannibalism, which he declared illegal. Groups of heavily militarized Kono warriors were raiding Mende villages. Probyn used the British army to end the raids, and then had Mende people from the area trained as soldiers. The raids were successfully stopped by this effort. Working as soldiers also provided prestige and good pay for the Mende-majority region. The Leopard Society, a murder cult that engaged in ritualistic human sacrifice and cannibalism, became an issue during Probyn’s tenure as governor and he had to use his authority to simultaneously investigate and prosecute cases as they emerged, while also calming down rural populations who were gripped with fear; with regards to this effort Probyn said he was “preventing mass hysteria.” Probyn had the distinction of leaving Sierra Leone measurably popular among the colony’s African majority. When he was replaced by Edward Merewether, many Africans who worked for the British government in Sierra Leone petitioned that they “wanted Probyn back.″

Probyn then returned to the Caribbean, where he was first Governor of Barbados (1911-1918) and then of Jamaica (1918-1924). During his tenure as governor of Jamaica, women were granted suffrage. However, Probyn mandated that this be subject to “safe and rigid qualifications”, meaning that the majority of black Jamaican women were still effectively denied the right to vote.

On his retirement from the colonial service he returned to England, where he served as Chairman of the Royal Victoria Hospital, Folkestone. (Wikipedia)

• Keywords: British Colonial Administration · British Colonial History · British Foreign Office · British Foreign Policy · Colonialism · Diplomatic History · Diplomatic History of the British Empire · Freetown · Harry Luke – Sierra Leone I (1908 – 1911) · Photography – Rare · Sierra Leone · Sierra Leone / First Posting 1908-1911 – Sir Harry Luke · Sierra Leone / Sir Harry Luke Collection · Sierra Leone Content / Sir Harry Luke Collection · Sir Harry Luke · Sir Harry Luke – Personal Archive of Books and Correspondence · Sir Harry Luke Collection · Sir Leslie Probyn
• Language: English
• Inventory Number: 30198AB

EUR 275.000,--