Harry Luke

Sir Harry Charles Luke (born Harry Charles Lukach)[1] KCMG, GCStJ, D.Litt. of Oxford (1938) and honorary LLD of Malta, (London 1884 - Cyprus 1969) was an official in the British Colonial Office. He served in Barbados, Cyprus, Transcaucasia, Sierra Leone, Palestine, Malta, the British Western Pacific Territories and Fiji. He is the author of some books on several of these countries.

Biography

His father, J.H. Luke (né Lukács)[2] was an Austro-Hungarian, but later acquired American citizenship; his mother was a Polish Catholic of the minor nobility.

He was born in London in 1884 and educated at Eton College and at Trinity College, Oxford, of which he became an Honorary Fellow in 1952.

Luke's first official appointment was as Private Secretary (1908) and Aide-de-Camp in Barbados, except for a period during May–July when he was attached to the Colonial Office. He served as Private Secretary to the High Commissioner of Cyprus (1911–1912) and as Commissioner of Famagusta (1918–1920).

From 1909 to 1911 he was also second lieutenant in the London Yeomanry.

During World War I, he served as Commander of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve on the Syrian Coast, and as a Political Officer on the staff of Admiral Sir Rosslyn Wemyss; for his services he was awarded the Italian medal for military valour.

In 1919 he was appointed Political Officer to the Admiral of the Fleet, Sir John de Robeck.

In 1920 he spent six months (from April to September) as British Chief Commissioner in Transcaucasia (Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan).

In 1921, he was assistant Governor of Jerusalem and was appointed a member of the Haycraft Commission, which was established by Sir Herbert Samuel to investigate the cause of the riot which started in Jaffa on 1 May that year, and into the affairs of the Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem.[3]

From 1924 to 1928 he held the post of Colonial Secretary of Sierra Leone.

He was subsequently appointed to be the acting High Commissioner to the Government of Palestine. He assumed this position on 19 July 1928 and held it until 6 December 1928.

In August 1929, acting as deputy to Sir John Robert Chancellor, he attempted to mediate an agreement between Jewish and Arab leaders, without success.

Later he was Lieutenant Governor of Malta (1930–1938) and Governor of Fiji and High Commissioner of the British Western Pacific Territories from 16 September 1938 to 21 July 1942.

On his retirement from the Colonial Service, in 1943, he was for three years Chief Representative of the British Council in the Caribbean.

He died in Cyprus, where he often spent the winter, on 11 May 1969.

Family

Luke married, in 1918, Joyce Evelyn Fremlin, the daughter of Henry James Leigh Fremlin and his wife, Maud Evelyn Deane (marriage dissolved by divorce in 1949). They had two sons, Peter Ambrose Cyprian ("Peter") Luke, born in 1919, and Michael Charles Deane ("Michael") Luke, born in 1925.[4]

Honours

Luke's published works

Government offices
Preceded by
Herbert Onslow Plumer		 High Commissioner of Palestine (acting)
1928 		Succeeded by
Sir John Robert Chancellor
Preceded by
Sir Arthur Frederick Richards		 High Commissioner for the Western Pacific
1938–1942 		Vacant
Title next held by
Sir Alexander Grantham
Governor of Fiji
1938–1942 		Succeeded by
Sir Philip Euen Mitchell

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Americanized spelling of the Hungarian (Lukács), from the personal name Lukács, Hungarian form of Lucas (English: Luke).
  2. ↑ Sir Harry Luke Collection
  3. ↑ Palestine. Disturbances in May, 1921. Reports of the Commission of Inquiry with correspondence relating thereto .. (1921), by the Haycraft Commission of Inquiry
  4. ↑ Sir Harry Luke Collection. Births registered in St Albans Registration District in the third quarter of 1919 and second quarter of 1925. Lady Luke married, secondly, Harold Anthany Shadforth, and died in Cape Town in 1973 - see eGGSA Library SHADFORTH Harold Anthany 1892-1983 & Joyce Evelyn FREMLIN 1894-1973.

References

External links