1. [Private Materials Sir Harry Luke] – [Luke, Sir Harry / Lukach, Harry] Storrs, Sir Ronald Henry Amherst.

Manuscript Letter Signed (MLS) from Sir Ronald Henry Amherst Storrs during his tenure as Governor of Cyprus to Sir Harry Luke condoling on the death of Luke’s father: ‘Only a word of v. true condolence on your heavy bereavement. Your father was always most kind [?] + helpful to me & I do realize from personal experience how sharp a blow & shock you are under. R S.’ The letter itself does not reference Cyprus but was clearly written during Storrs’ time as Governor of Cyprus.

[This item is part of the Sir Harry Luke – Archive / Collection]. London, 2nd of July 1930. Folio. 1 page with official envelope. From the private collection / library of colonial governor, diplomat and historian, Sir Harry Luke.

2. [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.

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

Typed Letter signed (TLS) from Sir Ronald Storrs to Sir Harry Luke. The letter was written during Storrs’ time as Governor in Jerusalem and is on British Colonial Office stationery: ‘My dear Harry – Thank you for yours of exactly one month ago. But no protestations will avail to wipe out from my family the imperishable memory of your behaviour at the wedding feast. I forward you King Pausolus and for earnest favour of return the intermittant Satyr from which I derived great benefit. Pirie-Gordon stayed with us three or four days of the pilgrimage and told me (greatly to my pleasure) that you had before leaving London something like definite personal encouragement for Ubr. Alas I fear Billy G’s visit will be too late to help; but if the worst has not happened by then your subcutaneous and intra-muscular propulsion will be infinitely esteemed by yours, with homage to the Princess Patricia, threys R S”.

[This item is part of the Sir Harry Luke – Archive / Collection]. Jerusalem, The Governorate, March 17th, 1926. Octavo. One page with original envelope. From the private collection / library of colonial governor, diplomat and historian, Sir Harry Luke.

4. [Palestine Content / Ecclesiastical] – [Luke, Sir Harry / Lukach, Harry] Storrs, Sir Ronald Henry Amherst.

Typed Letter Signed (TLS) and partly Autographed Letter on Stationery of The Governorate, Jerusalem, from Sir Ronald Henry Amherst Storrs to Sir Harry Luke. The two-page letter was written by Storrs in August 1925, during his posting as Governor of Jerusalem and reached Sir Harry while he was holidaying in Alt-Aussee (Austria). During this period, Luke was Colonial Secretary in Sierra Leone. Storrs writes: “My dear Harry – If this gets you in time please introduce yourselves to the Duchess of Rutland, a very dear friend of mine, and deeply interested in Jerusalem. “On behalf of the Council of the Pro-Jerusalem Society I have much pleasure in giving you permission to use the article and map produced by you for the second volume of the Annales on the Holy Sepulchre……[Storrs continues]: “The Plumers arrived the day before yesterday…. [that is Field Marshal Lord Plumer who was High Commissioner of the British Mandate for Palestine in 1925]…… and were well received by both sides……” [In Mandatory Palestine Plumer gained a reputation as being “genuinely even handed” and was one of the few British administrators who was consistently popular with both the Jewish community and the Arab community in that territory. Privately, he was sympathetic to the cause of establishing a homeland for the Jewish people; however, he tried his best to “be fair” to Arab concerns as well while he was High Commissioner there (source: Wikipedia)]. Storrs continues: “The Hendersons also to hand. The Worlds worker, now about to become a Mamur Hajz or Seizure Officer, rejects your cowric shells…..with all the contempt of a Mutamaddin for the Mutawahhishin…..I do hope you will secure in arriving Leone”

[This item is part of the Sir Harry Luke – Archive / Collection]. Jerusalem, 27th August, 1925. Quarto. 1 sheet (2 pages partialyy typed, partially in manuscript hand by Storrs). From the private collection / library of colonial governor, diplomat and historian, Sir Harry Luke.

5. [Palestine Content] – [Luke, Sir Harry / Lukach, Harry] Storrs, Sir Ronald Henry Amherst.

Manuscript Letter Signed (MLS) marked “Destroy” from Sir Ronald Henry Amherst Storrs to Sir Harry Luke. The two – page letter was written by Storrs in June 1925, during his posting as Governor of Jerusalem and Judea and reached Sir Harry while he was still Colonial Secretary in Sierra Leone. Storrs asks Luke “If you can, extract from Co [possibly Colonial Office] who is responsible for the dirty work over my leave, & how the Thane of Roach behaved [that is Edward Keith-Roach, British Colonial administrator and later Governor of Jerusalem].

[This item is part of the Sir Harry Luke – Archive / Collection]. Jm [Jerusalem], 12 VI 25 [1925]. Octavo. 1 sheet (2 pages filled with red ink manuscript handwriting by Storrs, with original envelope). From the private collection / library of colonial governor, diplomat and historian, Sir Harry Luke.

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

Typed Letter Signed (TLS with manuscript additions) on Stationery of Government House, Cyprus, from Sir Ronald Henry Amherst Storrs to Sir Harry Luke. The two – page letter was written by Storrs in August 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, Yours of the 18th received with lively satisfaction and the enclosure from the Thegn [Code for “Thane”] shewn to the highly gratified Daisy, who says it is nothing of the documents that emanate daily from the new office within the wall in Jerusalem. …..I am duly exploring the possibilities …..and indeed comic rumour that I am bored with Ubr. On the contrary the charm and interest of the place grow upon me every day and I am encouraged to believe that the Ergs and foot-poundals expended by myself in a variety of directions are already beginning to generate a current of advantage for the Colony: [continued in manuscript handwriting by Storrs]: including the revision to date of yr. admirable handbook [that is ‘Handbook of Cyprus’] (any bequests thereto ?)….”.

[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.

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

Typed Letter Signed (TLS) from Sir Ronald Henry Amherst Storrs to Sir Harry Luke. The two – page letter was written by Storrs during the finalization of his posting in Jerusalem as Governor of Jerusalem and Judea and reached Sir Harry while he was still Colonial Secretary in Sierra Leone. The Letter touches on the uprooting Storrs and his family feel after 9 years of ‘anchors and tentacles’ [in Jerusalem]. In the letter, which is marked ‘Private – Pl[ease] destroy’, Storrs reports somehow cryptic on a project to get Luke somehow to Cyprus so they can work together again. Storrs reminisces how he looks back with gratitude, pleasure and regret to his collaboration with Luke. Storrs also reflects on a journey: ‘We came out by Paris (where I saw the finest collection of Rhodian plates in the world), Assisi (having named the street here after St. Francis in the spring), Rome (heard Mussolini and saw Gasparri), Athens (warned one or two prominent Cypriots against any political back-chat), Alexandria (to pack my collection of icons and alabaster) and finally Jerusalem whence, on the 29th, H.M.S. Cornflower will remove my wife, self, A.D.C. and about 70 packing cases to Famagusta which we hope to reach on the Feast of St.Andrew, he being, I believe, the Patron Saint of the Island”. In a Post Scriptum Storrs reports.

[This item is part of the Sir Harry Luke – Archive / Collection]. Jerusalem, 11th November 1926. Folio. 2 pages with original envelope. From the private collection / library of colonial governor, diplomat and historian, Sir Harry Luke.

8. [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.

9. [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.