Manuscript / Autographed Letter Signed (MLS / ALS), marked as “Private / Personal”, from Lieut.-Colonel A. C. Tompkins to Harry Luke while Luke was Colonial Secretary of Sierra Leone. Lieut.-Colonel A. C. Tompkins writes in this embittered letter to Luke “I am very very grateful indeed for all you have done & your sympathy on my case….It is more than kind of you to write again to Sir Ronald Storrs in Cyprus…For he seems to be a honored minded & certainly most sympathetic man. What good he has already done in the old Island & I sincerely hope he will get the reward indeed he deserves….I am waiting and waiting for Justice…..so there is nothing for me but to express at all costs to me personally the ways & intrigues of the Cyprus department at the Colonial Office & the cowardly malice….of Cyprus Official (Governor to Staff of Secretary) 1920 to 1923 …..2 men are dead..[Fenn ?] & last week General Sir H[arold] Ruggles – Brise of the Officers Association but I hold the personal letters of the former & the Committees letters of the latter which proofs deliberate antagonisation to my ever getting employment. For what reason ? “Gore [that is William George Arthur Ormsby-Gore, 4th Baron Harlech] & Stevenson [that is Sir Malcolm Stevenson] Ellis & ?” only Rumours [?]. This cruel treatment has ruined me + broken my home but I am not going under the ground without a Fight & by that I mean a real Fight & exposure. Amery [Leo / L.S.Amery [colonial secretary to Stevenson [governor, Cyprus] & Ormsby – Gore are infallible & they’re being grossly deceived by their permanent Staff….”.
[This item is part of the Sir Harry Luke – Archive / Collection]. London, June 27, 1927. 4 pages on one A4 folded sheet. From Sir Harry Luke’s personal library.
Stunning letter which sheds light on A. C. Tompkins’ case of destitution at the end of his colonial career. His case made it all the way into debates in the British Parliament [see debates in Volume 188 – on Monday 23 November 1925) where Sir William Davison asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether his attention has been called to the case of Lieut.-Colonel A. C. Tompkins, who was recently employed in the Colonial administration in Cyprus and Davison asked whether he is aware that Tompkins has been retired after more than 42 years of public service without any pension and whether a petition from Colonel Tompkins to His Majesty the King has been received at the Colonial Officewhether he is aware that Colonel about the fact that he feels let down by his superiors].
EUR 275.000,--
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