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Autograph – Rare (65 items)

Sir Harry Luke - Long (2-page) Manuscript Letter (MLS) / Autographed Letter, signed (ALS) by Christopher Pirie-Gordon

11. [Malta Content] – [Luke, Sir Harry] / Pirie-Gordon, Christopher.

Long (2-page) Manuscript Letter (MLS) / Autographed Letter, signed (ALS) by Christopher Pirie-Gordon, 14th Laird of Buthlaw, “formerly Assistant-Resident in Amman and seconded for service under the Foreign Office, following the winding-up of the Palestine Administration”, to Sir Harry Luke from Pirie-Gordon’s post in Taiz (Yemen). Pirie-Gordon writes: “‘My dear Harry Charles, thank you so very much for your recent letter. Iremain almost aghast at the extent of your “wanderlust”. Brazil and Penang combined with almost permanent residence in Malta and a flat in London seem quite a good way of keeping at bay in suggestion of the humdrum or routine in life”. Pirie-Gordon describes his recent activities, including a ‘visit to stay with our Ambassador in Addis Ababa’, where he found the Ethiopians ‘a friendly courteous people’. Regarding the situation in the Yemen Pirie-Gordon writes: “We have been through a rough summer here during the Crown Prince’s period of Regency with one unpleasant afternoon in Taiz when the army ran amok”. The fact that the country did not have ‘the long awaited revolution then, when the Imam [Ahmad bin Yahya] was out of the country’, has convinced Pirie-Gordon ‘that revolutionaries of the necessary calibre are just not to be found locally’. Of the Imam he writes: “If someone bumps the old man off (no easy undertaking) or if Allah decides that he can do without him no longer then all hell will be loose and the War of the Roses will probably be declared at once.” In the meantime the country will ‘probably slide into a nice quiet anarchy’. Regarding ‘His Majesty’s gracious message’, Luke’s ‘mental imagery’ of ‘the Dragon breathing fire’ is ‘not inapt’. Pirie-Gordon now turns to his own future, which ‘remains shrouded in mystery’. His aim is to secure a ‘particular post’, despite ‘the Ambassador in the country concerned’, who is ‘anxious to have it for an old boyfriend of his own’. The letter ends with Pirie-Gordon describing his ‘highly international social life’, which, he declares, ‘suits me well’.

[This item is part of the Sir Harry Luke – Archive / Collection]. Taiz [Yemen], 8 October, 1959. Quarto. Two pages. From Sir Harry Luke’s personal library. The letter comes with a publication, edited by Hector Bolitho: “The British Empire”, in which are contained two essays on the Colonial History of the Empire by Sir Harry Luke: I.The Mediterranean Colonies and Aden” / II. “The British Islands of the Pacific”.

EUR 275.000,-- 

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Manuscript / Autographed Letter Signed (MLS / ALS), marked as "Private / Personal", from Lieut.-Colonel A. C. Tompkins to Harry Luke

12. [Cyprus Content] – [Luke, Sir Harry] / Lieut.-Colonel A. C. Tompkins / Sir Malcolm Stevenson [Governor of Cyprus] / William George Arthur Ormsby-Gore / [Leo] L.S. Amery / etc.

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.

EUR 275.000,-- 

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Manuscript letter by british colonial officer Claude Delaval Cobham to Harry Lukach, [later Sir Harry Luke]

14. [Education of Sir Harry Luke] – [Luke, Sir Harry] Lukach, Harry Charles / [Claude Delaval Cobham (British Colonial Official in Cyprus (Larnaca)] / [Guy le Strange (British Orientalist).

Manuscript letter by british colonial officer Claude Delaval Cobham to Harry Lukach, [later Sir Harry Luke] in which Cobham reflects on a manuscript Luke had sent him for analysis: “My dear Lukach, I return the Ms. I lent it to Guy le Strange who showed it to Ellis [possibly Sir Ellis Hovell Minns], of the B.M. [British Museum] [who are] both skilled analysts”. Cobham continues about the manuscript: “It is a kind of Hagiology, but written by a Druze – hence the [?] of the mad Khalife Hakim bin amr allah as a Saint, and spells Salih, which is a Druze Mack. There are similar Mss. in the B.M. library but Ellis [?] not a Druze one – but they are of no great interest or Value. The writing is neat and very legible….I hope you are well and enjoying yourself. I start, I think, on Thursday for Coblenz and S. Blasien [that is St. Blasien], returning at the very end of August. Yours very truly – C. Delaval Cobham”.

S. James, July 27 (no year but c.1906). Small Octavo. 2 pages filled on one bifolium / Plus Letter from British Museum to Harry Charles Lukach regarding Admission to the Reading Room (19th of July 1906). Excellent letter by British Colonial official in Cyprus, Claude Delaval Cobham. Important letter which states the early influence of Luke in his love for Cyprus because by the time this letter was written and Luke had a relationship with this important scholar, Cobham had already written the important “Excerpta Cypria”. The ALS by Cobham came with a letter by the Director of the British Museum to H.C.Lukach regarding admission to the Reading Room of the B.M.

EUR 275.000,-- 

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Manuscript Letter Signed (MLS) from Sir Harry Luke's Great Uncle Vilmos.

17. [Palestine Content / Malta Content] – [Luke, Sir Harry / Lukach, Harry] Vilmos, William de.

Important Manuscript Letter Signed (MLS / Autographed Letter Signed (ALS) on the Palestine and Malta-Postings from Sir Harry Luke’s Great Uncle William de Vilmos. The letter, written in german, was addressed to Luke just after he was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of Malta in the year 1931. Remarkably, the letter touches on William de Vilmos being happy that in this year 1931 his nephew Harry Luke, has now escaped Palestine “this impossible place, where the bloody disputes will be neverending…” / “…such life-endangering scenes you had to endure [in Palestine] will hardly occur during your posting in Malta” [free translation]”. The letter reads: ‘Budapest, 20. Jaenner 1931 – Mein geliebter Harry. Du hast mir mit Deinem lieben Brief vom 9. dieses eine grosse Stueck Freude bereitet & ich danke Dir dafuer herzlichst. Deine Neujahrswuensche erwidere ich aufs Herzlichste fuer Dich, wie fuer die liebe Joyce, Peter & Michael. Sehr freut es mich, dass der Aufenthalt in Malta, sowohl was Klima als Behausung, Garten etc. betrifft, jeden Einzelnen von Euch sehr conveniert & Euch viel Vergnuegen bereitet. In der schwierigen Weltlage in der wir jetzt leben, gibt es jetzt ueberall Schwierigkeiten die unausweichbar sind, aber jedenfalls bin ich froh und gluecklich, dass Du von Palaestina, diesem unmoeglichen Fleck Erde, wo die blutigen Zwistigkeiten kaum jemals aufhoeren werden, gluecklich und & lebendig weggekommen bist. Solche Szenen, wie Du durchzuleben gezwungen warst, in fortwaehrender Lebensgefahr Dich befindend, wirst Du in Malta nicht ausgesetzt sein. Ich wuensche Deiner Thaetigkeit den allerbesten Erfolg. Deine liebe Mutter habe ich waehrend den Weihnachtsfeiertagen, die ich in Wien verbrachte, mehrmals gesehen, war mit ihrem Aussehen & ihrem Gemuetsstand recht zufrieden. Mir geht es gottlob gesundheitlich sehr gut. Ich kann selbst ueber mein Alter nicht klagen, denn ich habe gottlob trotz meiner 92 Jahre ueber Altersbeschwerden keinerlei Klagen zu erheben. Leb wohl mein lieber guter Harry, ich gruesse & kuesse Dich & die theuere Joyce in aller Liebe – Dein Onkel Vilmos”.

[This item is part of the Sir Harry Luke – Archive / Collection]. Budapest, 20. Jaenner 1931. Octavo. 1 sheet with a three-page letter. From the private collection / library of colonial governor, diplomat and historian, Sir Harry Luke.

EUR 275.000,-- 

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Manuscript Letters Signed (MLS) / Autograph Letters Signed (ALS) on Stationery of the Lieutenant Governor of Malta

19. [Malta Content] – [Luke, Sir Harry] / [Archbishop of Rhodes (Sir Mauro Monsignor Caruana)] / Bishop of Gozo (Mikiel Monsignor Gonzi)] / [Lord Strickland, 4th Prime Minister of Malta].

Manuscript Letters Signed (MLS) / Autograph Letters Signed (ALS) on Stationery of the Lieutenant Governor of Malta, from Sir Harry Luke to his mother during the month of June, 1932. The two multi-page letters (from the 6th and 13th of June, 1932) deal with private matters but also have significant content about the famous conflict between the two local, Maltese Bishops [1. Archbishop of Rhodes (Sir Mauro Monsignor Caruana) / 2. Bishop of Gozo (Mikiel Monsignor Gonzi)] and Lord Strickland, 4th Prime Minister of Malta. Luke writes in the letter from June 6th, 1932: “There have been a succession of political changes here these last 2 weeks, keeping me very busy. The Bishops here first refused to accept an apology from Lord Strickland, then agreed to accept it, so the Elections, which were nearly again suspended, will after all be held, next week & after which the new Ministry will be formed and, if all goes well, I should with luck be able to get away about end of June & go with the first instance to England, coming out to you (I hope with Peter) about first week in August…..Things politically seem in a pretty awful mess everywhere. I hope this depressing crisis will soon pass off. Ronald Storrs, whose time in Cyprus is up in hours, has been made Governor of Northern Rhodesia (Central Africa) which I fear he won’t like very much, & he is being succeeded by a very senior man, Sr R[eginald Edward] Stubbs, the present Governor of Jamaica, who is one of the most senior of the Governors. I should have had [?] Cyprus, of course, but would rather be here than go to some remote & awful African hole.”

[This item is part of the Sir Harry Luke – Archive / Collection]. Malta, 6 June, 1932 & 13 th June, 1932. Quarto. Two Letters, each four pages on two sheets. From the personal library of Sir Harry Luke, letters to his mother which he inherited after her death.

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[Luke, Significant, eight-page (8) Manuscript Letter Signed (MLS) from J.H.Luke to his son

20. [Cyprus Content] – [Luke, Sir Harry] / Pursuit of Cyprus Posting by Harry Luke / Earl Curzon of Kedleston / Foreign Office / Admiral Sir John de Robeck /.

Significant, eight-page (8) Manuscript Letter Signed (MLS) from J.H.Luke to his son, Harry Luke, while Harry was posted with Admiral Sir John de Robeck in the Mediterranean. The letter also includes two important copies of typescripts, sent to Harry Luke’s father, J.H.Luke (at the St.James’ Club, Piccadilly) from the Foreign Office (directed by Earl Curzon of Kedleston). In urgent Telegrams, Luke had asked his father to help him “to ascertain from Colonial Office if my application for Chief Secretaryship, Cyprus, is likely to be successful and telegraph reply care of High Commissioner, Constantinople, as have meanwhile received offer of Assistant Governorship, Jerusalem, to which I must reply. Would prefer Cyprus”. In a second Telegram that day (28th of July, 1920), Luke writes again to hs father: “Please ask McMahon approach Amery as to succession Stevenson”. The lengthy letter of Luke senior is of great importance because it shows the ever recurring actions of Luke’s father regarding the career-progression of Sir Harry. From other correspondence we know that Luke senior takes a huge interest in his son being promoted to a significant position. From the letter we learn about Harry Luke’s chances to get the Cyprus-Position he so very much desires and about his excellent reputation at the Colonial Office. His father also writes to Harry: “How very kind of the Admiral [de Robeck] to send you to Cyprus in a Destroyer & dispatching that nice cable to Storrs” / An additional two typescrits are dealing with Luke’s publication “Handbook of Cyprus”: Daniel MacMillan had written to the father of Luke and asked for permission to “take down the type”, “Our present stock is 370 copies”.

[This item is part of the Sir Harry Luke – Archive / Collection]. London, 28th of July, 1920 – 4th of August, 2024. Octavo-Bifold. 8 pages of manuscript letter, 4 pages of typescripts. From Sir Harry Luke’s personal library.

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