51. [Ecclesiastical Content] – [Luke, Sir Harry / Lukach, Harry] Bell, George Kennedy Allen.

Typed Letter Signed (TLS) on Lambeth Palace stationery from Bishop George Kennedy Allen Bell to Sir Harry Luke: ‘My dear Luke – very many thanks for your letter and kind congratulations. I am sending this in duplicate to Jerusalem and to the St. James’ Club. I should greatly like to see you when you are in London if this is possible. I do not disguise the sorrow with which I hear of your impending departure from Jerusalem. The loss of yourself following so soon after Deedes’ [Brigadier General Sir Wyndham Henry Deedes] departure must be a great loss to Palestine and in particular to the Patriarchate. I am also very sorry to hear that Barron [J.B.Barron of the Palestine Land Commision Weights and Measure Commission] is leaving and I wonder what is going to happen to the Commission and all its affairs. I shall be leaving Lambeth on March 31st and spending ten days in the Lakes: then I go down at once to Canterbury where I shall be from April 12th to May 5th. I shall be in London for about a fortnight from May 5th onwards. I would greatly like to see you if you are about at that time. Yours very sincerely, G.K.A. Bell.

[This item is part of the Sir Harry Luke – Archive / Collection]. Lambeth Palace, 18th March 1924. Octavo. 1 page with original envelope. From the private collection / library of colonial governor, diplomat and historian, Sir Harry Luke.

52. [Sierra Leone Content] – [Luke, Sir Harry / Lukach, Harry] Storrs, Sir Ronald Henry Amherst.

Typed Letter Signed (TLS) on Stationery of Government House, Cyprus, from Sir Ronald Henry Amherst Storrs to Sir Harry Luke. The one – page letter was written by Storrs in July 1927, during his posting as Governor of Cyprus and reached Sir Harry while he was still Colonial Secretary in Sierra Leone. Storrs writes: “My dear Harry – I can hardly bear to read the first and second pages of your letter….and even now feel a sort of suspense created by its maddeningly tantalizing information. I am consoled on the whole by your refusal of the G.C. from which, in spite of the extra cash, there was no possible increment to your now made reputation and which would, as you feared, have infallibly tended to prolong your exile in W.A. [West Africa]..[…]…Archer [that is Sir Geoffrey Francis Archer] has now put in (more surprisingly to me than actual resignation) for a transfer to the West Indies.”

[This item is part of the Sir Harry Luke – Archive / Collection]. Cyprus, July 6th, 1927. Octavo. 1 sheet (1 page). From the private collection / library of colonial governor, diplomat and historian, Sir Harry Luke.

53. [Cyprus Content] – [Luke, Sir Harry / Lukach, Harry] / Storrs, Sir Ronald Henry Amherst.

Typed Letter Signed / Monogrammed (TLS with manuscript corrections) from Sir Harry Luke to Sir Ronald Storrs. The two – page letter plus addenda was written by Luke in September 1927, during his posting as Colonial Secretary in Sierra Leone, and reached Storrs during his Governorship in Cyprus. Luke writes about [Mr.] St.Barbe Baker and two pamphlets [by Baker] he sent Storrs of which one is “full of a passionate idealism canalized into the planting of trees in dry countries”. Luke continues: “He is now in the Forestry Service in Nigeria….I imagine he would be the very man for countries such as Ubr and Palestine, which wage a constant and unequal campaign against drought and inadequate rainfall. If you were to think it worth while to place him in touch with yourself, he might conceivably be of value in the direction of organizing voluntary tree-planting in the Regno di Cipro. In the matter of the Handbook [of Cyprus] I enclose on a separate sheet a very few corrigenda and suggestions…..” [The Corrigenda on page three of the letter (Addenda) deals with corrections of Date of publications of e.g.: “Cyprus under the Turks” etc.].

[This item is part of the Sir Harry Luke – Archive / Collection]. [Sierra Leone], 13th September, 1927. Folio. 3 sheets. From the private collection / library of colonial governor, diplomat and historian, Sir Harry Luke.

54. [Malta Content] – [Luke, Harry Charles] / 400 Year Anniversary of Great Siege of Malta.

Unidentified Manuscript Letter Signed (MLS) / Autographed Letter Signed (ALS) regarding Luke’s resignation [possibly from an order or other form of organization regarding Malta]: “Everyone at the meeting on Saturday was really sorry to hear of your resignation and it was immediately unanimously agreed that you should be invited to be the Guest of Honour at the next Dinner. I think this is particularly appropriate this year, when the 400th anniversary of the Great Siege is being celebrated – and who is there who knows more about the History of Malta than you do !”.

[This item is part of the Sir Harry Luke – Archive / Collection]. [London], 29th of April, 1965. A4. Two pages on one sheet with envelope. From the personal collection of Sir Harry Luke.

55. [Commonwealth & Colonial History & Law] – Luke, Sir Harry [Lukach, Harry] – ‘the most unwasted life of any man I have known’ – (Sir Ronald Storrs on Sir Harry Luke)

Very Large Archive / Collection of British Colonial Official & Lieutenant-Governor of Malta, Sir Harry Luke. Including 123 Books and Pamphlets, often with multiple annotations and inserted materials / Including the stunning amount of 427 Manuscript-Letters / Typed Letters (among which are also a few Postcards) / Including 95 interesting documents / Inlcuding 171 Items of Ephemera. The Archive is Sir Harry Luke’s very personal and one might say, confidential collection of original autographed letters, correspondence and books he surrounded himself with at the end of his life. The Archive includes important and meaningful personal and official letters from important historical figures in the Arena of the Middle East and especially Palestine with for example interesting legal insights into the Jewish-Arab conflicts of the 1920s, as well as working-copies of books which Luke wrote himself at every location he was posted to during his career. In order to understand the vastness of the Archive you need to visit our website and see the twenty (20) chapters of Material we synchronised chronologically with Sir Harry Luke’s life [Search for “Library & Collections” and find 20 chapters at the bottom of that page]. The Archive contains an unbelievable and impressive array of several highly interesting letters and correspondence regarding key historical events as disparate as the Mudros/Gallipoli-Campaign under Rosslyn Wemyss, the Jaffa Riots, the Western Wall Riots of Jerusalem in 1929 as well as information on diplomatic activity prior to the Suez Crisis, descriptions of locations like Guadalcanal prior to the War in the Pacific, detailed information on personell at Gardner Island / Phoenix Islands during the vanishing of Amelia Earhart, to only name a few bizarre coincidences. The books contain manuscript annotations and preparatory notes for later editions as well as many letters written to Luke regarding the many postings he served at during his long career in the Colonial Service. The Archive includes several hundred pages of correspondence between Luke and other officials within the Colonial Office, often in multi-page letters. Also included is proof of Luke’s connections to the Ecclesiastical World of the Vatican and Lambeth Palace, his diplomatic abilities are praised in letters from friends and officials alike. Luke received cordial letters from Queens (Queen Salote) as well as polarizing letters from Politicians. Included are manuscript notepads as well as confidential reports from other diplomats on locations where Luke was soon to be taking office, e.g. British Western Pacific Islands. The Archive is unique in its form because it represents not only the correspondence between Luke as an official but also allows us a view into the life of a Career Diplomat of the last days of the Colonial British Empire who develops a deep connection with everyone he served with and under. Luke did not only keep correspondence with famous friends like Ronald Storrs but also emotional letters from those who served under him and respectfully stay in touch beyond the termination of Luke’s service. Many letters to family colleagues in the Colonial Office, Politicians, Priests with political functions, are preserved with Luke’s original typescript-answer or initial letter. The official and often explosive and historically meaningful content with striking relevance for reinterpreting Mediterranean, Middle Eastern Conflicts etc. makes this archive a must for research and posterity. This is not just any diplomat’s archive. The majority of these letters are unpublished but are waiting to be discovered (see for example the long letter by Sir Kenneth Roberts-Wray on the Palestine Commission. Also included his Luke’s very valuable, handwritten manuscript-notebook of colonial postings-recipe-collections together with his working copy of the very special cookery book “The Tenth Muse”. The majority of the collection is now catalogued and visible on our website. A collection of c. 89 letters and 43 items of Ephemera has not been catalogued yet.

England / Palestine / Israel / Malta / Cyprus, Fiji / Sierra Leone etc., 1898 – 1968. Octavo / Quarto / Folio. c.15000 pages (books) / Collection of hundreds of Letters (see images) / Photographs and ephemera etc. Original Hardcover / Softover – Bindings (also private interim-bindings), often with the rare dustjackets in protective collector’s Mylar, some without dustjackets. Very good condition with only minor signs of external wear. Please check our website under “Libraries & Collections” and see detailed listings of books and letters, all categorized.