Ancient CyprusAncient Cyprus

Lawyer / legislator

Charles W. Dilke

fl. 1878–1881 · United Kingdom

British lawyer, active 1878–1881.

Life and work

  1. December 1878
    As a Liberal MP put a question in the House of Commons to the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs about 'Mr de Cesnola, an American citizen', tried at Larnaca for digging antiquities without a firman. The reply confirmed a fine (later remitted by the High Commissioner) and confiscation of the finds. Tatton-Brown calls it the first question in Parliament about a named resident of Cyprus.

    LondonTatton-Brown 2001

  2. 1878–1879
    Stanley-Price: some three months after diplomatic exchanges on the case ceased, Dilke denounced Alessandro's treatment in the Commons, calling him an American citizen; Stanley-Price adds that the claim to American citizenship was never proven.

    LondonStanley-Price 2018

  3. c. 1881
    Wrote to A. P. di Cesnola thanking him for the gift of a volume (the 1881 Cyprus Antiquities album), which he said he would prize as a pleasant memorial. The letter is undated in the printed text and signed 'Charles W. Dilke'.

    Cesnola 1881

Connections

1 person

Scholarship

Colleagues & contacts

Sources

  1. 1.Veronica Tatton-Brown (ed.) (2001). Cyprus in the 19th Century AD: Fact, Fancy and Fiction. Oxford, Oxbow.
  2. 2.Nicholas Stanley-Price (2018). “Illicit excavation: the trial of Alessandro Palma di Cesnola in Cyprus in 1878”. The Antiquaries Journal 98, 297-317.
  3. 3.A. P. di Cesnola (1881). Lawrence-Cesnola Collection. Cyprus Antiquities excavated by Major Alexander Palma di Cesnola, 1876 to 1879. London, W. Holmes & Son.