Desmond Luke

Desmond Edgar Fashole Luke (6 October 1935 – 27 February 2021) was a former politician and lawyer in Sierra Leone. He served as foreign minister (1973–75), Minister of Health (1977–78), and ambassador to the West Germany (1969–73), France (1971–73) and the European Economic Community (1971–73) at various points in his political career. Luke competed in the 1996 presidential election against several other candidates, eventually losing to current President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah after only receiving 1.1% of the vote in the initial round of voting. In March 1998, Luke was appointed to replace Samuel Beccles-Davies as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Luke retired from that position in 2002. He was an alumnus of Cambridge University and Oxford University. Luke was a strong supporter of Kabbah's government-in-exile after the 1997 coup by Johnny Paul Koroma.

Early life and education A member of the Creole ethnic group, Desmond Edgar Fashole Luke was born in 1935 in Freetown, British Sierra Leone, into a high-achieving family. Desmond Luke attended the Prince of Wales Secondary School in Freetown for two years, before going to England in 1949 to continue his education at King's College, Taunton, Somerset. from which position he retired in 2002.