1. [Caribbean Content] – [Luke, Sir Harry / Lukach, Harry].

Manuscript letter, signed, from colonial administrator, Sir Ronald Herbert Garvey on stationery from Government House, Belize, during his Governorship of British Honduras (1949) to Sir Harry Luke regarding the necessary refurbishment of Government House in Belize: ’‘They are tying me down to a pathetic 750000 pounds when I need 10 million pounds’ – Good God ! Wake up England !!!’

[This item is part of the Sir Harry Luke – Archive / Collection]. Belize, 1949. Octavo. 1 Letter. From the private collection / library of colonial governor, diplomat and historian, Sir Harry Luke.

2. Congo / Kongo – Leopold II of Belgium (1835-1909) – King of the Belgians and Owner / Absolute Ruler of the Congo Free State from 1885 to 1908.

Collection of four very important and meaningful manuscript letters by Leopold II to his administrator and Foreign Minister of the Congo – Free-State, Baron Adolphe de Cuvelier (1860-1931) with a total of 16 pages filled with Leopold’s instructions on pressing issues regarding a warning about an imminent visit by the Rector of the Mill-Hill Missionaries [probably Herbert Alfred Henry Vaughan (1832 – 1903)] and Leopold’s qualification of the visit of being detrimental to the Congo Free State (″ne travaillent pas pour l’État”). Leopold continues in another letter to talk about the hostile positions of english officials (consuls) and missionaries (″que les consuls anglais et les missionnaires anglais se conduisent bien mal envers l’État”). Interestingly, Leopold also touches on the nuisance of the german press criticizing Belgian Railway Lines and he is of the opinion that this is all happening in order to force the german parliament [″Reichstag”] to finance the building of the Tanganyika Railway [between Dar es Salaam and Kigoma]: (″cherche à effrayer l’opinion [en] Allemagne à propos de mes chemins de fer afin d’obtenir du Reichstag des fonds pour la ligne allemande vers le Tanganika”.

16 pages of MLS, Manuscript Letters (signed) on 10 leaves of Leopold’s official stationery “Château de Laeken” and “Palais de Bruxelles”. Laeken / Brussels, Château de Laeken [Palace of Laeken], 1901 – 1906. The leaves with different sizes (13,5 cm x 9 cm) and (18 cm x 11,5 cm). Excellent condition. Unsigned. Tremendously rare to find original letters by Leopold II on the open market in which the Colonial Free State and the protection against inquisitive visitors is discussed in such clear and instructive fashion. Leopold’s correspondence with Adolphe de Cuvelier shows how he is very much trying to still protect and influence the narrative of his Colonial Slavery Outpost even in the final years of his life.

3. [Cyprus Content] – Luke, Harry Charles.

The City Of Dancing Dervishes And Other Sketches And Studies From The Near East. [Author’s Own Copy]. Illustrated With Photographs Taken By The Author.

[This item is part of the Sir Harry Luke – Archive / Collection]. London, Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1914. 20,5 cm x 14 cm. XI, 257 pages, 13 illustrations. Original Hardcover. The author Harry Luke’s (Lukach) personal copy. Very good condition with some rougher signs of external wear.

4. [Cyprus Content] – Luke, Harry Charles / [Wilkins, Fraser – First Ambassador to Cyprus from the United States of America (USA) / Kennedy, John F. / JFK Assassination].

Manuscript (MLS) / Autographed letter (ALS) signed by Fraser Wilkins to Sir Harry Luke. The two-page-letter on mourning stationery of the “Embassy of the United States of America by Fraser Wilkins is a thank-you note to former british colonial officer, Sir Harry Luke, who had obviously sent condolences to the US-Embassy on Cyprus regarding the Assassination of JFK. Fraser Wilkins writes: “Dear Sir Harry – It was very thoughtful of you to write at this sad time. We had not realized that you were both in Kyrenia [Cyprus]. It is sad – not only for Mrs Kennedy & his family but also for our Country. There was so much more – as you indicate, which he might have done if he had not been cut down. Its maybe, as the ancient Greeks …said, that those whome the Gods love die young….Sincerely Fraser Wilkins”. Wilkins closes: “We hope to see you before too long!”

[This item is part of the Sir Harry Luke – Archive / Collection]. Cyprus, December 2, 1963. Octavo. 2 pages. Very good condition with minor annoation on the letter in red ink by Sir Harry Luke, identifying Fraser Wilkins as “Ist US Ambassador to Cyprus”.

5. [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.

6. [Cyprus Content] – [Luke, Sir Harry] / Lieut.-Colonel A. C. Tompkins.

Manuscript Letter Signed (MLS) / Autographed Letter Signed (ALS) from Lieut.-Colonel A. C. Tompkins who congratulates Luke for his new posting in Malta and refers to the positive outcome for Luke from the Palestine Commission (regarding the Wailing-Wall-Incident from 1928): “My dear Luke, Hearty congratulations on what I read in The Evening Standard this evening. I heartily hope you will indeed get the reward & promotion you deserve. You must have had a interesting time, then & since, but you have come out as I knew you would “on top” …” Tompkins then goes on to talk again about his case of destitution at the end of his colonial career (see also Harry Luke item 31711AB): “I only wish in my small way, that I could get some justice + compensation either “in kind”, or in employment after 6 long years of struggling + patience but with the desperate sharks now, my patience is exhausted + I shall let go ‘la dernière Cartouche’ + if I can get a paper to accept it will expose the whole persecution + unsults I had to submit to under the “Stevenson-Fenn [John Cyril Douglas Fenn]” + “Clique’s” regime in Cyprus…..[….] – Yours sincerely, A.C.Tompkins”.

[This item is part of the Sir Harry Luke – Archive / Collection]. London, Thursday, 12/VI/1930. Octavo. 3 pages on Octavo Bifold. From Sir Harry Luke’s personal library.

7. [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.

8. [Ecclesiastical Content] – [Luke, Sir Harry / Lukach, Harry Charles] / Bell, George Kennedy Allen (Bishop of Chichester, later Dean of Canterbury) / Mar Ignatius Elias III (Patriarch of Antioch and Head of the Syriac Orthodox Church) / Davidson, Randall T. (Archbishop of Canterbury / Douglas, John Albert (Dean of St.Luke’s) / R.F.Borough (Chaplain in Constantinople).

Collection of significant Documents and exchange of letters regarding “Intercommunion between the Anglican Church and Orthodox Syrian Church”. The documents and letters show a string of stunning developments during the last days of the Ottoman Empire, between Mar Ignatius and the Archbishop of Canterbury in which the tensions between Churches, the charged atmosphere of the outgoing Ottoman Empire and fragility of the Patriarchate in Jerusalem are manifested in these communications. Striking also the clarity with which is determined that all parties have to avoid to anger the Turks and avoid having the Turks think that Mar Ignatius “is trying to form some political alliance with the British”. See all documents listed below and some highlights mentioned here: Typed Letter Signed (TLS) with manuscript annotations by the later Dean of Canterbury, George Bell, sent to Commander H[arry] Luke while Luke was in Venice during October 2022. The letter is accompanied by two Typescripts of letters between the Archbishop of Canterbury (then Randall Davidson) and Mar Ignatius as well as a highly confidential Memorandum which outlines the very delicate topic of Mar Ignatius asking the Archbishop if he would be “prepared to authorise and arrange that the Syrian Orthodox (Jacobites) in America and elsewhere who were outside the ministrations of their own clergy should be [could be] mininistered to by Anglican Priests”. According to the Memorandum, compiled and sent by Rev. John Albert Douglas, Vicar of S. Luke’s, to “Commander Luke” in October 1922, the highly conflicting topic of “Intercommunion between the Anglican Church and Orthodox Syrian Church”, started “in the autumn of 1920” and the correspondence before us presents the culmination of a two year long, significant correspondence between Lambeth Palace (Archbishop of Canterbury) and the Syrian Patriarchat in Antioch (Mar Ignatios – Elias III). Harry Luke was sought out as intermediate after it became clear that Mar Ignatius had either misunderstood items in the communication or was stalling and the Memorandum suggests that Luke, “possibly with Archdeacon Waddy” should call to Mar Ignatios and “remind him what it was and why it was that the Archbishop of Canterbury wrote to him”. The mediation, hoped for from Luke, was at time clearly based on Luke’s experience in the region and the letter from George Bell suggests he is hought to be the solution to this delicate matter. The Typescript of the Letter from Randall Davidson to Mar Ignatius is of great importance due to the Archbishop and Mar Ignatius firstly establish in no uncertain terms the righteousness of either faith. Randall Davidson, satisfied by this, agrees that “It is now my privilege in consequence of these communications to authorise these recognised members of the Orthodox Syrian Church who, being prevented from access to their own clergy, desire to receive the Holy Communion, or to have their children being baptised, or their marriage solemnized, to avail themselves of the ministration of our clergy”.

[This item is part of the Sir Harry Luke – Archive / Collection]. Canterbury / Jerusalem / Camberwell [South London], June – November, 1922. Octavo / Quarto. Eight Documents [Letters and Typescripts]. From the private collection / library of colonial governor, diplomat and historian, Sir Harry Luke.

9. [Ecclesiastical Content] – [Luke, Sir Harry / Lukach, Harry] / Archbishop of Canterbury, Randall T. Davidson / Davidson, Randall Thomas (1st Baron Davidson of Lambeth, GCVO, PC).

Typed Letter Signed (TLS) from the Archbishop of Canterbury, Randall T. Davidson, to Harry Luke, then Assistant Governor of Jerusalem: ‘Dear Mr.Luke, I thank you very cordially for your ‘Handbook of Palestine’. I am sure that such a book has for some time been wanted – a book a little different from the mere guide-book. You have now met the need, so far as I can judge, most effectively. I am yours very truly Randall T. Canterbury.’

[This item is part of the Sir Harry Luke – Archive / Collection]. Canterbury, Lambeth Palace, 20th of October, 1922. Octavo. One page with original envelope. From the private collection / library of colonial governor, diplomat and historian, Sir Harry Luke.

10. [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.