Storrs, Sir Ronald°
STORRS, SIR RONALD°
STORRS, SIR RONALD ° (1881–1955), British military governor (1917–20) and district commissioner (1920–26) of *Jerusalem. Storrs, who came from a distinguished English family, was a brilliant classics student at Cambridge University. In 1904 he joined the Egyptian service, became Oriental secretary, and during World War i was a member of the Arab Bureau at British military headquarters in *Cairo. After political service in Mesopotamia, he was appointed military governor of Jerusalem. There Storrs, who had a great sense of the historical occasion, was in his element. More of a diplomat than an administrator, he did a great deal for the city, founding the Pro-Jerusalem Society, with financial support from influential friends in Britain and elsewhere, to preserve and restore the Old City and revive its indigenous crafts. In 1926 he became governor of Cyprus and later of Northern Rhodesia.
His memoirs, Orientations (1937), and his work Lawrence of Arabia: Zionism and Palestine (1940) contain reservations about Zionism and the activities of the Zionist Commission, headed by Chaim *Weizmann. During the Arab riots of 1920 and 1921 the leaders of the yishuv and the Hebrew press accused Storrs of deliberate leniency toward the Arab rioters. Jewish leaders' demands for his resignation in 1921 were rejected by the high commissioner, Sir Herbert *Samuel.
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[Edwin Samuel,
Second Viscount Samuel]