Colonial administration

Chief Secretary's Office, Cyprus Government

Nicosia, Cyprus

Colonial administration in Nicosia; part of Government of Cyprus (British colonial administration). 22 people in the register connected with it.

History

1879–1890
Colonel Falkland Warren held the post of Chief Secretary to the Government. Buchholz states the post covered excavation and museum matters, making him at times licensor or employer, or superior, of Ohnefalsch-Richter.
Falkland Warren Max Ohnefalsch-Richter Buchholz 1989
1885–1886
Warren's dispute with Watkins over the control of excavation (Given's chapter 'The fight for the past: Watkins vs. Warren'); the Chief Secretary's Office (Warren, with an Assistant Chief Secretary and a Chief Clerk) is the government side.
Falkland Warren George Smith W. H. Bennett Given 2001
7 February 1889
Richard Schöne, director general of the Berlin museums, wrote to the Chief Secretary (Col. Warren) that the Berlin Royal Museums had obtained an excavation permit for Dali (Idalion). Schmid reports that the High Commissioner, the Chief Secretary and the Colonial Office then corresponded on the matter, and that the Berlin museums had hired Samuel Brown as agent.
IdalionFalkland Warren Richard Schöne Samuel Brown Schmid 2025
June–November 1889
Government Superintendent Sophocles Stavrinides sent his reports on Ohnefalsch-Richter's Tamassos excavations (for the Royal Berlin Museum) to the Chief Secretary, not to the Nicosia Commissioner. Buchholz notes the Office was in the government camp on Troodos in the summer (letterhead of 10 Sept 1889), that Warren signed documents 7 and 8, and that Warren distrusted Ohnefalsch-Richter.
TamassosSophocles Stavrinides Falkland Warren Max Ohnefalsch-Richter Buchholz 2007
28 December 1898 – 1 October 1903
Tankerville Chamberlayne, District Commissioner of Kyrenia, corresponded with the Chief Secretary about the first (1898) and second (1903) Lambousa treasures.
LambousaTankerville James Chamberlayne Merrillees 2009
1899
F. B. Welch applied to the Chief Secretary for an export permit for some unwanted Kouklia finds for himself, during the British Museum excavations at Kouklia, where Constantinos Theodorides acted as government inspector.
KoukliaFrancis Bertram Welch Constantinos Theodorides Kiely 2015
December 1928 – 1929
Reginald Nicholson, Colonial Secretary, acted as Governor for some eight months from December 1928.
Reginald Nicholson Stanley-Price 2025, n. 51

People

22 people

Staff and members · 21

George Greavesofficial (1878–1879) · Chief Secretary (called 'Secretary to the Government' in Wolseley's account)Stanley-Price 20181878
Major B. SeagerAssistant Commissioner (appointed 1879); president of the district court, Nicosia (1891)1879
Robert BiddulphHigh Commissioner of Cyprus1879
Roland Lyon Nosworthy MichellCommissioner of Limassol1879
George Gordon Hakeofficial1882
Edward CarlettiGovernment surveyor (Ohnefalsch-Richter); clerk in the Land Registry Office1884
George Smithassistant (1885–1885) · Assistant to the Chief Secretary (Warren's immediate junior)Given 20011885
SotherlandRoyal (English) Engineer and Surveyor to the Government1885
W. H. Bennettstaff (1885–1886) · Chief ClerkGiven 20011885
Ernst Footgovernment overseer / inspector of the 1886 Polis excavations1886
Henry Ernest Gascoyne BulwerHigh Commissioner of Cyprus1886
Tankerville James Chamberlayneother (1898–1903) · private secretary to the High Commissioner; District Commissioner of Kyrenia from May 1898 · corresponded withMerrillees 20091886–1903
Sophocles Stavrinidesofficial (1889–1890) · Government Superintendent of the Excavations / Government overseerBuchholz 20071889
Constantinos TheodoridesGovernment Inspector / superintendent on the British Museum excavations at Kouklia1899
Ernest McDonaldActing Commissioner of Kyrenia1902
Harry LukePrivate Secretary to the High Commissioner1911
WillimottGovernment Analyst, Nicosia1927
Reginald Nicholsonofficial (December 1928 – 1929) · Colonial Secretary; Acting Governor for some eight months from December 1928Stanley-Price 2025, n. 511928
Andrew Wrightofficial (1935–1935) · Acting Colonial SecretaryStanley-Price 20251935
W. Denis Battershillofficial (1935–1939) · head of the Cyprus Secretariat (Colonial Secretary); Acting Governor 1935; Governor from summer 1939Stanley-Price 20251935
Falkland Warrenofficial (1879–1890)Buchholz 1989 Gardner et al. 1888

Others connected · 1

Francis Bertram Welch1899

Sources

1.H.-G. Buchholz (1989). “Max Ohnefalsch-Richter als Archäologe auf Zypern”. Cahiers du Centre d'Études Chypriotes 11-12, 3-27.
2.H.-G. Buchholz (2007). “Bemerkungen zu M. Ohnefalsch-Richters Ausgrabungen 1889 in Tamassos”. Cahiers du Centre d'Études Chypriotes 37, 231-244.
3.Stephan G. Schmid (2025). “Was there an official German interest in the archaeology of Cyprus between 1878 and 1914?”. Empire & Excavation: Critical perspectives on archaeology in British-period Cyprus, 1878-1960, 69-92. Leiden, Sidestone Press.
4.Michael Given (2001). “The fight for the past: Watkins vs. Warren (1885-6) and the control of excavation”. Cyprus in the 19th Century AD: Fact, Fancy and Fiction, 255-260. London, British Museum.
5.T. Kiely (2015). “Finds from Kouklia in the British Museum”. Cahiers du Centre d'Études Chypriotes 45, 63-80.
6.R. S. Merrillees (2009). “The modern history of the first Lambousa treasure of Byzantine silverware from Cyprus”. The Antiquaries Journal 89, 389-403. Online
7.Nicholas Stanley-Price (2018). “Illicit excavation: the trial of Alessandro Palma di Cesnola in Cyprus in 1878”. The Antiquaries Journal 98, 297-317.
8.Nicholas Stanley-Price (2025). “Colonial society and the dismissal of John Hilton, first Director of Antiquities in Cyprus”. Empire & Excavation: Critical perspectives on archaeology in British-period Cyprus, 1878-1960, 109-126.
9.E. A. Gardner, D. G. Hogarth, M. R. James, R. Elsey Smith (1888). “Excavations in Cyprus, 1887-88”. Journal of Hellenic Studies 9, 147-271.
10.Christopher Johnston (1901). “The Marburg Collection of Cypriote Antiquities”. Journal of the American Oriental Society 22, 18-19. Online