Retreat from Empire

This study traces Sir Robert Armitage's successful career in Kenya through to his fateful governorships in Cyprus and Nyasaland. The author concludes that Armitage, despite his troubles, should be remembered for his administration that laid the foundations for Malawi's swift move to independence.

Using private papers, government records and interviews and correspondence with politicians and a large number of officers who served with him in Africa and Cyprus, Professor Baker carefully and sensitively traces Robert Armitage's colonial service career. He served in four colonies and Baker meticulously follows Armitage's career in each. In Kenya, as a district officer Armitage outstandingly set up the massive Isiolo refugee camp and as a secretariat officer his onerous finance work stood Kenya, and his own future, in good stead. As Nkrumah's finance minister he conscientiously helped the Gold Coast's rapid progress to independence. He was Governor of Cyprus when violence broke out and attempts were made on his life in 1955, and Governor of Nyasaland during the Central Africa Federation's middle years and the 1959 state of emergency. Baker examines Armitage's dealings with those responsible for colonial policy and changes in it - Churchill, Eden, Macmillan, Home, Perth, Amery, Lennox-Boyd and Macleod - and the conflicts which resulted.