Richard Edmonds Luyt

Sir Richard Edmonds Luyt (8 November 1915 – 12 February 1994) was a South African born colonial administrator and university vice-chancellor who served as the last Governor of British Guiana from 1964 to 1966 and as vice-chancellor of the University of Cape Town from 1967 to 1980.

Biography Early life and education Richard Edmonds Luyt was born in Cape Town in the Union of South Africa on 8 November 1915. He was educated at Diocesan College before attending the University of Cape Town. While at Oxford, Luyt was an excellent cricketer and rugby player. He obtained a Rugby Blue,

Service in Africa In 1939, following his graduation from the University of Oxford, Luyt joined the colonial service and was assigned to a minor posting in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia). With the outbreak of World War II, Luyt became a private in the British Army. In 1940, as a sergeant, Luyt commanded a guerrilla company behind Italian lines in Ethiopia in the East African campaign. Luyt was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal. Luyt became a commissioned officer, and by the end of the war held the rank of lieutenant colonel. Just three days before Luyt's appointment, on 4 March, a bomb went off at Tain, killing two people, and a strike was ongoing called by the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers' Union. The day before Luyt was sworn in, an Indo-Guyanese woman was run over by an Afro-Guyanese man in a tractor near Leonora.

The PPP objected to the swearing-in of Luyt as governor, and refused to attend the ceremony. The election was scheduled for December 1964. In the lead-up to the election, there was civil disorder and violence was common from both PPP and PNC supporters. Nearly 200 people were murdered and 1000 were injured, and more than 15,000 people were displaced. Further violence included the sinking of the Sun Chapman on 6 July and the murders of 5 Indo-Guyanese at Mackenzie. On 13 June, Luyt imprisoned 30 On 2 December, just days before the elections, Luyt announced that he would not necessarily appoint the leader of the party with the largest number of votes as premier. Cheddi Jagan objected to the announcement, saying that the question could influence the electorate and amounted to election interference. However, they did not achieve an outright majority, and Forbes Burnham's People's National Congress, together with the support of the United Force, were able to attain a majority of seats in parliament, and together as a coalition were invited to form a government by Luyt. Jagan refused to resign and Luyt was forced to remove him, with a constitutional change necessary to do so because the PPP had not technically lost the elections, still being the party with the largest independent share of parliamentary seats. Commonwealth observers raised concerns about the fairness of some aspects of the election.