Based on extensive archival research and access to private papers, government records and interviews and correspondence with politicians and a large number of officers who served with him in Africa and Cyprus, this volume explores the career of Sir Robert Armitage.

Armitage served in four British colonies during his career, beginning in Kenya, where he created the Isiolo refugee camp and his financial aid helped develop Kenya. As Nkrumah's finance minister he aided the Gold Coast in gaining independence and then became Governor of Cyprus where violence broke out in 1955. Later, Armitage served as Governor of Nyasaland during the Central Africa Federation's middle years and the 1959 state of emergency.

In his book, Colin Baker carefully and sensitively re-traces Armitage's carer and examines his relations with those responsible for colonial policy, such as British Prime Ministers, Churchill, Eden, Macmillan and Home, and its consequences.