Ronald Storrs
Encyclopedia
Sir Ronald Henry Amherst Storrs, KCMG, CBE
(Bury St Edmunds, 19 November 1881 – London
, 1 November 1955) was an official in the British Foreign and Colonial Office
. He served as Oriental Secretary in Cairo
, Military Governor of Jerusalem, Governor of Cyprus
, and Governor of Northern Rhodesia
.
Ronald Storrs was educated at Charterhouse School
and Pembroke College, Cambridge
where he gained a first class degree in the Classical Tripos
.
ian Government in 1904, five years later becoming Oriental Secretary to the British Agency, succeeding Harry Boyle
in this post. In 1917 Storrs became Political Officer representing the Egyptian Expeditionary Force
in Mesopotamia as Liaison officer for the Anglo-French mission in Baghdad
and Mesopotamia
where he met Gertrude Bell
and Sir Percy Cox
.
T. E. Lawrence
commented in The Seven Pillars of Wisdom:
"The first of all of us was Ronald Storrs, Oriental Secretary of the Residency, the most brilliant Englishman in the Near East, and subtly efficient, despite his diversion of energy in love of music and letters, of sculpture, painting, of whatever was beautiful in the world's fruit... Storrs was always first, and the great man among us".
Storrs is credited with a classic example of British understatement when referring to the behaviour of the British toward the many tribal and regional leaders that the British were trying to influence in the Great Game: "we deprecated the imperative, preferring instead the subjunctive or even, wistfully, the optative mood".
During the First World War Storrs was a member of the Arab Bureau
and a participant in the negotiations between the Sharif Husayn and the British government and in the organization of the Arab Revolt
. His own personal positions were that the Sharif Husayn was asking for more Arab territory than he had any right to, and that Syria
and Palestine
should be incorporated into a British-sponsored Egyptian Empire as a replacement for the Ottoman Empire
, a plan which was never implemented. Storrs is thought to have underestimated Arab Muslim resistance to non-Muslim rule.
", for which purpose he was given the army rank of colonel. In 1921 he became Civil Governor of Jerusalem and Judea
. In both positions he attempted to support Zionism
while protecting the rights of the Arab
inhabitants of Palestine, and thus earned the hostility of both sides. He devoted much of his time to cultural matters, including town planning, and to Pro-Jerusalem
, a cultural organization that he founded.
In 1919, Storrs was appointed a Commander of the Order of the Crown of Italy
.
, a period which included an attempted revolt (1931) during which Government House was burned to the ground. He was then appointed Governor of Northern Rhodesia
in 1932. He retired for health reasons in 1934, at the age of 53.
In 1937 he published his memoirs Orientations (US edition The Memoirs of Sir Ronald Storrs). Between 1937 and 1945 he served on the London County Council
, and during the Second World War he broadcast for the Ministry of Information. He died in 1955 and is buried at St John the Baptist Church, Pebmarsh
.
CBE
CBE and C.B.E. are abbreviations for "Commander of the Order of the British Empire", a grade in the Order of the British Empire.Other uses include:* Chemical and Biochemical Engineering...
(Bury St Edmunds, 19 November 1881 – London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, 1 November 1955) was an official in the British Foreign and Colonial Office
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, commonly called the Foreign Office or the FCO is a British government department responsible for promoting the interests of the United Kingdom overseas, created in 1968 by merging the Foreign Office and the Commonwealth Office.The head of the FCO is the...
. He served as Oriental Secretary in Cairo
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
, Military Governor of Jerusalem, Governor of Cyprus
Cyprus
Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...
, and Governor of Northern Rhodesia
Northern Rhodesia
Northern Rhodesia was a territory in south central Africa, formed in 1911. It became independent in 1964 as Zambia.It was initially administered under charter by the British South Africa Company and formed by it in 1911 by amalgamating North-Western Rhodesia and North-Eastern Rhodesia...
.
Biography
The eldest son of John Storrs, the Dean of Rochester. Married to Louisa Lucy Storrs.Ronald Storrs was educated at Charterhouse School
Charterhouse School
Charterhouse School, originally The Hospital of King James and Thomas Sutton in Charterhouse, or more simply Charterhouse or House, is an English collegiate independent boarding school situated at Godalming in Surrey.Founded by Thomas Sutton in London in 1611 on the site of the old Carthusian...
and Pembroke College, Cambridge
Pembroke College, Cambridge
Pembroke College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.The college has over seven hundred students and fellows, and is the third oldest college of the university. Physically, it is one of the university's larger colleges, with buildings from almost every century since its...
where he gained a first class degree in the Classical Tripos
Tripos
The University of Cambridge, England, divides the different kinds of honours bachelor's degree by Tripos , plural Triposes. The word has an obscure etymology, but may be traced to the three-legged stool candidates once used to sit on when taking oral examinations...
.
Egypt
Storrs entered the Finance Ministry of the EgyptEgypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
ian Government in 1904, five years later becoming Oriental Secretary to the British Agency, succeeding Harry Boyle
Harry Boyle
Henry Frederick Boyle was a leading Australian Test cricketer of the late 1870s and early 1880s....
in this post. In 1917 Storrs became Political Officer representing the Egyptian Expeditionary Force
Egyptian Expeditionary Force
The Egyptian Expeditionary Force was formed in March 1916 to command the British and British Empire military forces in Egypt during World War I. Originally known as the 'Force in Egypt' it had been commanded by General Maxwell who was recalled to England...
in Mesopotamia as Liaison officer for the Anglo-French mission in Baghdad
Baghdad
Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...
and Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia is a toponym for the area of the Tigris–Euphrates river system, largely corresponding to modern-day Iraq, northeastern Syria, southeastern Turkey and southwestern Iran.Widely considered to be the cradle of civilization, Bronze Age Mesopotamia included Sumer and the...
where he met Gertrude Bell
Gertrude Bell
Gertrude Margaret Lowthian Bell, CBE was an English writer, traveller, political officer, administrator, and archaeologist who explored, mapped, and became highly influential to British imperial policy-making due to her extensive travels in Greater Syria, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, and Arabia. Along...
and Sir Percy Cox
Percy Zachariah Cox
Major-General Sir Percy Zachariah Cox, GCMG, GCIE, KCSI was a British Indian Army officer and colonial administrator in the Middle East. In the late 19th century and early 20th century, he was one of the major figures in the creation of Iraq...
.
T. E. Lawrence
T. E. Lawrence
Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Edward Lawrence, CB, DSO , known professionally as T. E. Lawrence, was a British Army officer renowned especially for his liaison role during the Arab Revolt against Ottoman Turkish rule of 1916–18...
commented in The Seven Pillars of Wisdom:
"The first of all of us was Ronald Storrs, Oriental Secretary of the Residency, the most brilliant Englishman in the Near East, and subtly efficient, despite his diversion of energy in love of music and letters, of sculpture, painting, of whatever was beautiful in the world's fruit... Storrs was always first, and the great man among us".
Storrs is credited with a classic example of British understatement when referring to the behaviour of the British toward the many tribal and regional leaders that the British were trying to influence in the Great Game: "we deprecated the imperative, preferring instead the subjunctive or even, wistfully, the optative mood".
During the First World War Storrs was a member of the Arab Bureau
Arab Bureau
The Arab Bureau was a section of the Cairo Intelligence Department during the First World War. According to a Committee of Imperial Defence paper from January 7, 1916 the Arab Bureau was established to "harmonise British political activity in the Near East...[and] keep the Foreign Office, the India...
and a participant in the negotiations between the Sharif Husayn and the British government and in the organization of the Arab Revolt
Arab Revolt
The Arab Revolt was initiated by the Sherif Hussein bin Ali with the aim of securing independence from the ruling Ottoman Turks and creating a single unified Arab state spanning from Aleppo in Syria to Aden in Yemen.- Background :...
. His own personal positions were that the Sharif Husayn was asking for more Arab territory than he had any right to, and that Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
and Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
should be incorporated into a British-sponsored Egyptian Empire as a replacement for the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
, a plan which was never implemented. Storrs is thought to have underestimated Arab Muslim resistance to non-Muslim rule.
Palestine
In 1917 Storrs became, as he said, "the first military governor of Jerusalem since Pontius PilatePontius Pilate
Pontius Pilatus , known in the English-speaking world as Pontius Pilate , was the fifth Prefect of the Roman province of Judaea, from AD 26–36. He is best known as the judge at Jesus' trial and the man who authorized the crucifixion of Jesus...
", for which purpose he was given the army rank of colonel. In 1921 he became Civil Governor of Jerusalem and Judea
Judea
Judea or Judæa was the name of the mountainous southern part of the historic Land of Israel from the 8th century BCE to the 2nd century CE, when Roman Judea was renamed Syria Palaestina following the Jewish Bar Kokhba revolt.-Etymology:The...
. In both positions he attempted to support Zionism
Zionism
Zionism is a Jewish political movement that, in its broadest sense, has supported the self-determination of the Jewish people in a sovereign Jewish national homeland. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the Zionist movement continues primarily to advocate on behalf of the Jewish state...
while protecting the rights of the Arab
Arab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...
inhabitants of Palestine, and thus earned the hostility of both sides. He devoted much of his time to cultural matters, including town planning, and to Pro-Jerusalem
Pro-Jerusalem Society
Pro-Jerusalem Society was a society established in 1918 in Jerusalem. It was founded by Sir Ronald Storrs, Governor of Jerusalem during the British Mandate for Palestine, and Charles Robert Ashbee, an architect...
, a cultural organization that he founded.
In 1919, Storrs was appointed a Commander of the Order of the Crown of Italy
Order of the Crown of Italy
The Order of the Crown of Italy was founded as a national order in 1868 by King Vittorio Emanuele II, to commemorate the unification of Italy in 1861...
.
Cyprus and Rhodesia
From 1926-1932 Storrs was Governor and Commander-in-Chief of CyprusCyprus
Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...
, a period which included an attempted revolt (1931) during which Government House was burned to the ground. He was then appointed Governor of Northern Rhodesia
Northern Rhodesia
Northern Rhodesia was a territory in south central Africa, formed in 1911. It became independent in 1964 as Zambia.It was initially administered under charter by the British South Africa Company and formed by it in 1911 by amalgamating North-Western Rhodesia and North-Eastern Rhodesia...
in 1932. He retired for health reasons in 1934, at the age of 53.
Later years
Storrs was one of the six pallbearers at the funeral of T.E. Lawrence in 1935.In 1937 he published his memoirs Orientations (US edition The Memoirs of Sir Ronald Storrs). Between 1937 and 1945 he served on the London County Council
London County Council
London County Council was the principal local government body for the County of London, throughout its 1889–1965 existence, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today known as Inner London and was replaced by the Greater London Council...
, and during the Second World War he broadcast for the Ministry of Information. He died in 1955 and is buried at St John the Baptist Church, Pebmarsh
Pebmarsh
Pebmarsh is a small village and a civil parish the Braintree district, in Essex, England. It is situated to the north east of Halstead close to the A131.- External links :*****...
.
External links
- Memoirs of Sir Ronald Storrs at Internet ArchiveInternet ArchiveThe Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...
.