Harry Luke

Sir Harry Charles Luke (born Harry Charles Lukach) KCMG, D. Litt., (1884-1969) was a British colonial official. His father was an Austro-Hungarian of jewish descent, but later acquired American citizenship; his mother was a Polish catholic of the minor nobility. He was educated at Eton College and at Trinity College, Oxford, of which he was an Honorary Fellow. He served as Private Secretary to the High Commissioner of Cyprus (1911-1912), Commissioner of Famagusta (1918-1920), Chief Commissioner in Transcaucasia (1920).

In 1921, he was Assistant Governor of Jerusalem and was appointed a member of the Haycraft Commission which was established by Herbert Samuel to investigate the cause of the riot which started in Jaffa on May 1 that year. He was subsequently appointed to be the acting Chief Secretary 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 held the post of 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.

Selected works

• Anatolica, (London), 1924
• Cypriote Shrines, (Faith Press), 1920
• Cyprus: a Portrait and an Appreciation, (Harrap), 1957
• Cyprus under the Turks 1571-1878, (Oxford University Press), 1921
• The Fringe of the East. A Journey through Past and Present Provinces of Turkey, (Macmillan and Co), 1913 (First published under the name Harry Charles Lukach)
• The Handbook of Cyprus (London), 1920 (together with D.J. Jardine)
• The Old Turkey and the New, (First published in 1936 by Macmillan & Co Ltd under the title The Making of Modern Turkey)

See also

• List of Governors of Fiji
• British Mandate of Palestine#British High Commissioners for Palestine

References

• Holland, Robert (2004; online edition, January 2008). "Luke, Sir Harry Charles (1884–1969)" (subscription required). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/34629. Retrieved 17 April 2009. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |year= (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)

External links

• "Archival material relating to Harry Luke". UK National Archives.
• Peerage page
• Rulers of Fiji

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