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In the historiography of British imperialism, the role of the ‘man on the spot’ has been identified as an important impulse to the imperial project, and as a key instigator of decision making. Equal attention should be directed to assessing the contribution of ‘the man on the spot’ in the final unravelling of empire. Old fashioned diplomacy and diplomats should not be airbrushed from history as key individuals navigated the rocky terrain of decolonisation. The fraught negotiations at Lancaster House on Rhodesia-Zimbabwe's constitutional arrangements for independence between September-December 1979 were only part of the delicate process of resolution of the intractable UDI problem. The four months of Christopher Soames’ administration as the last British Governor comprised the second vital stage of implementation, particularly given the presence of four competing armed forces in Rhodesia at the time, all of whom had external backers.