101. [Sierra Leone Content] – Luke, Harry.

Manuscript Letter Signed (MLS) / Autographed Letter Signed (ALS) from Harry Luke to his Father & Mother during his posting as Colonial Secretary of Sierra Leone with interesting content about two of his books [″Anatolica” and “Mosul”]. Written on Stationery of the “Governor of Sierra Leone”, Luke writes home in May 1926, during a heatwave “the worst reknown in Freetown in living memory”. Luke talks about “an unbroken series of visitors, including the O-G party, a Portuguese Naval Squadron, a British Educational Musician, an American ditto, an International Medical Study Tour of Doctors promoted by the League of Nations, comprising 16 Medical Officers of 12 nationalities & finally Empire Day, when I had to harangue 2000 Schoolchildren….”. Luke continues about the situation of his family-travels and his wife Joyce making plans for a holiday in Kent but then interestingly talks about his publication “Anatolica”: “….so, the price of “Anatolica” has not yet been reduced ; & it is not in the interest of the reputation of a bookto suffer that fate. I do not therefore want to suggest it to mau., tho’ they may themselves decide to do it some time. There must be several hundred copies in stock. “Mosul” sales so far about 600 copies”. Luke closes with “I enclose a group [photo] taken when Ormsby-Gore was here….With much love From your son Harry”.

[This item is part of the Sir Harry Luke – Archive / Collection]. [Sierra Leone], 25th of May, 1926. Quarto. 4 pages on two leaves. From the personal collection Sir Harry Luke.

102. [Education of Sir Harry Luke] – [Lukach, Harry Charles / Sir Harry Luke] / [Michael Furse, Dean of Trinity].

Manuscript Letter Signed (MLS) / Autographed Letter Signed (ALS) from Harry Luke to his father. The letter, on stationery of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, was surely written after / during Orientation week in 1903 when Luke started his Education at Trinity Collee, Oxford. Luke reports to his father: “I am having a capital time up here. It is quite delightful. I was met at the station by one of the fellows I was in Italy with, who escorted me to my lodgings, which are most Excellent. Then went to tea with another fellow, or rather ‘Man’ at Worcester Coll. & had Dinner at Trinity Hall. On Tuesday I had breakfast with Arthur at Balliol & lunched with Furse [that was Michael Furse], the Dean of Trinity. In fact I am having a fine time. The papers are very hard indeed, harder than I Expected. I will show them to you when I come down. We have two papers every day, from 9:30 to 12:30, & from 2-5…..arriving at Paddington at 12.15. I propose to sleep that night at Down St. to go down to Ascot the next day & from Ascot on to Eton. I have met several old Etonians up here, amongst others Cassaretti, who is at Trinity….I hope you are well. How is the Electrocuting getting on ? Much love & au revoir till Friday – Your loving son Harry” – “P.S. That pig Paul got a Scholarship at New College”.

[This item is part of the Sir Harry Luke – Archive / Collection]. Oxford, Corpus Christi College, [1903]. Small Octavo. 4 pages on A5 fold. From Sir Harry Luke’s personal Library.

103. [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.

104. [Cyprus Content] – [Luke, Sir Harry / Lukach, Harry / Storrs, Ronald / Queen Marie of Romania].

Manuscript Letter Signed (MLS) / Autographed Letter Signed (ALS) with original photograph included. The letter was sent from Sir Ronald Storrs while Storrs was Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Cyprus, and Storrs used the internal Diplomatic post to send the letter to Harry Luke in Freetown, Sierre Leone. Storrs discusses a recent “publication by the Thane [that was Edward Keith-Roach, British Colonial administrator during the British mandate on Palestine] in an American Magazine” [that is Keith-Roaches article “The Pageant of Jerusalem”, published in the December issue of the year 1927 in The National Geographic]. Storrs informs Luke “I am this week proposing myself as repr[esentative] of my Govt. to the Oxford Orientalist Congress, Aug 29 – Sept 3. (about which you have doubtless heard). & with to suggest you doing likewise….I think you will again enjoy ourselves [sic] amazingly well. Meanwhile keep yourself free for the Sat-Mn preciding & including the Aug Bank Holiday, when I hope to be staying with the admirable [?] at Magdalene. Where I trust he will make you our [?]. Do I detect a reproach for not having sought permission to use your Map for the stamp ?….learn that the fault is not mine, for Watts had designed one here…The Q of Romania + 5 threatens to descend upon us [″In April 1928 Queen Marie of Romania and her daughter Ileana visited Cyprus. Rupert Gunnis was given the task to show them around the island” (Source: Severis Foundation)], & wd, in any other building than this be as welcomed as honoured. Toward the end of Mar…[?] – With our joint omaggi to yr Lady – I am y RS – – [P.S.]: “Daisy just had a 2nd girl” [the letter was kept by Luke together with an earlier, charming photograph of Storrs twins, titled by Luke: “The little Storrs girls at Deal Beach July 1917”].

[This item is part of the Sir Harry Luke – Archive / Collection]. [Cyprus], 29th of January, 1928. Folio. 1 page with envelope and photograph. From the private collection / library of colonial governor, diplomat and historian, Sir Harry Luke.

105. [Private Materials Sir Harry Luke] – [Luke, Sir Harry / Lukach, Harry] Ashbee, Charles Robert.

Manuscript letter Signed (MLS) by english architect and designer Charles Robert Ashbee to Sir Harry Luke, condoling him on the death of Luke’s father H.C.Luke. Ashbee reminisces: ‘I recall a charming hour I once spent with your father when on leave from Palestine – during your first year in Palestine [1921] – I brought him some message or other – the message is forgotten….the memory of the pleasant personality abides. Come to us again some day – Yours always, C.R.Ashbee – Godden Green – Near Sevenoaks).’

[This item is part of the Sir Harry Luke – Archive / Collection]. Godden Green, 1930. Octavo. 1 page in original envelope. From the private collection / library of colonial governor, diplomat and historian, Sir Harry Luke.

106. [Private Materials Sir Harry Luke] – [Luke, Sir Harry / Lukach, Harry] Buckle, George Earle (1854 – 1935).

Manuscript Letter Signed (MLS) by english editor and biographer George Earle Buckle to Sir Harry Luke, condoling him on the death of his father, H.C.Luke. Buckle also mentions a referral Sir Harry obviously seeked to a Col. Murray an asked Buckle to broker the meeting. But Buckle reassures Luke that he met Col. Murray and Murray mentioned to him that Luke and himself went to Eton together: ’….i saw Murray later in the day + mentioned the matter + found him fully aware that he + you were together at Eton. So you can go to him without further introduction – 50 Albemarle Street – Yours with renewed sympathy G.E.Buckle.’

[This item is part of the Sir Harry Luke – Archive / Collection]. Chelsea, 1930. Octavo. 1 page letter (both sides with text) including the original envelope. Tear to margins of the letter (1 inch missing). From the private collection / library of colonial governor, diplomat and historian, Sir Harry Luke.

107. [Palestine Content / Malta Content / Ecclesiastical] – [Luke, Sir Harry / Lukach, Harry] Valeri, Valerio [Cardinal / Bishop / Apostolic Delegate to Egypt].

Manuscript Letter Signed (MLS) by Valerio Valeri to Sir Harry Luke upon his departure as deputy High Commissioner of the British Mandate of Palestine to Lieutenant Colonel Sir John Robert Chancellor. [Luke attempted to mediate an agreement between Jewish and Arab leaders, without success’]. The letter by Bishop Valeri reads: ‘Dear Mr.Luke, this is a very confidential letter to express you both my sincere regrets at your departure from Jerusalem and my felicitations for your appointment as Governor of Malta under the present circumstances. Your high qualities are, no doubt, well known at the Colonial and the Foreign Office, a thing at which all the friends and acquaintances you left in Palestine have rejoiced. Wishing you every success in carrying out your work and with my kindest regards I am Sincerely Yours + Valerio Valeri’.

[This item is part of the Sir Harry Luke – Archive / Collection]. Cairo, Delegatio Apostolica Aegypti, July 22nd 1930. Octavo. 1 letter with original envelope. From the private collection / library of colonial governor, diplomat and historian, Sir Harry Luke.

108. [Sierra Leone Content] – [Luke, Sir Harry / Lukach, Harry] Russell, Sir Alison (Chief Justice of Tanganyika).

Manuscript letter signed (MLS) from Chief Justice of Tanganyika (1924-1929), Sir William Alison Russell to Sir Harry Luke on the occasion of Luke receiving the CMG. Russel, then stationed in Dar Es Salaam for the Colonial office send him a lengthy letter with very interesting detail: ‘Dear Luke, my wife and I am delighted to see an announcement…of this high honour bestowed on you….In these days an honour of that kind is indeed an honour. Have sent your book on Mosul to Sir D. Cameron [Sir Donald Charles Cameron, GCMG KBE (3 June 1872 – 8 January 1948)] ……I am going down the Congo, I hope + out at Matadi. Leaving Kigoma at the beginning of May – it takes about six weeks from Kigoma to Antwerp….I have never been to Haarlem. I am looking forward to sailing this summer. Only my friends picked up this ‘Winnie’ last summer in a pitch night ….+ she went to pieces. But I dare say I shall get another berth in a boat. I want to go ‘foreign’ – perhaps to Spain again. I wonder if there could be a chance of seeing you next summer in England. How goes it in Sierra Leone [?]…I thought your Mosul book very interesting + so fresh……Yours sincerely A. Russell.’

[This item is part of the Sir Harry Luke – Archive / Collection]. Dar Es Salaam, 24.2.1926. Octavo. 10 pages. with original envelope [Tanganyika 15 cents stamp]. From the private collection / library of colonial governor, diplomat and historian, Sir Harry Luke.

109. [Education of Sir Harry Luke] – [Lukach, Harry Charles / Sir Harry Luke] Luke, J.H. / William [Vilmos] de Ormody.

Manuscript letter signed (MLS) from J.H.Luke on Westinghouse Stationery, to his son Harry Charles Lukach (later Sir Harry Luke): “My dear Harry, Just a hurried line to say that I agree your remaining in Austria Hungary until the arrival of Grandfather….You say nothing about the [?] book – I hope you are putting your best effort into this your first literary work. Am terribly busy & off to Bussa [Nigeria] tomorrow [Westinghouse had business in Nigeria]. Love to all – Your affectionate Father J.H.L.”

[This item is part of the Sir Harry Luke – Archive / Collection]. Paris, Societe Anonyme Westinghouse, 1907. Octavo. Two – page letter with original envelope, addressed to “H.C.Lukach Esq. c/o Wm [William] de Ormody Esq. – Redoutenplatz [later Vigadó Square] – Budapest, Hungary”. From Sir Harry Luke’s personal Library.

110. [Sierra Leone Content] – [Luke, Sir Harry / Lukach, Harry] Larken, Vice-Admiral Sir Frank [KCB CMG / Naval Secretary].

Manuscript Letter signed (MLS) from Naval Secretary Sir Frank Larken to Sir Harry Luke. The letter addressed to Luke’s posting in Freetown, Sierra Leone [Envelope reads: ‘Harry C Luke Esq. CMG – The Colonial Secreatry – Sierra Leone’ – stamped: ‘Naval Secretary to First Lord’]. Sir Frank Larken congratulates Harry Luke on receiving the CMG [‘Companion’– Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George]. Larken writes: ‘My dear Luke – I send my best congratulations to you and Mrs. Luke on the CMG: it gave me great pleasure to see your name in the honours list. I see you are recurring your acquaintance with Sierra Leone. I can imagine that with your interaction + talent there are many more congenial spots you would have chosen – which your wife would prefer. Does the engaging native still talk the language the amusing sample of which you used to amuse us by giving: ‘I am in a bureau – s Secretary – To a Cabinet Minister’ – You will smile. Nasmith [that is Admiral Sir Martin Eric Dunbar-Nasmith VC, KCB, KCMG (1 April 1883 – 29 June 1965)] has just gone to command the College at Dartmouth [Britannia Royal Naval College Commander from 1926 – 1929] – a very good appt. + [?] the man for it. What a nipping time you gave Martin Nasmith + myself in Jerusalem. Kind regards to Mrs. Luke. Yours Frank Larken’.

[This item is part of the Sir Harry Luke – Archive / Collection]. Whitehall, On Whitehall Admiralty Stationery, 1926. Octavo. 2 pages (1 sheet with writing on both sides) and envelope. From the private collection / library of colonial governor, diplomat and historian, Sir Harry Luke.