Signed photo Brigadier-General Sir Frederick Gordon Guggisberg, KCMG, 

Signed photo Brigadier-General Sir Frederick Gordon Guggisberg, KCMG, 

Code: 10397

£80.00
 

Signed photo of Brigadier-General Sir Frederick Gordon Guggisberg, KCMG,DSO a Canadian-born British Army officer and British Colonial administrator and Governer of the Gold coast.

 

one of the few at the time who felt the African nations were quite capable of governing themselves.

 

while Governer of the Gold Coast he energetically undertook works of development and extension of railways, and created the deep-water harbour ofTakoradi.

 

In 1923 he commissioned the construction ofAccra's Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, the finest and most modern institution of its kind in colonial Africa at the time.

 

During his time in the Gold Coast, as during his time in Nigeria, Guggisberg was lucky to be able to benefit from the advice of the geologistAlbert Ernest Kitson, who took a keen interest in developing local infrastructures.

 

Close association with native Africans during his survey work convinced Guggisberg that the African races and Muslims of the Middle East and Asia were capable of eventually attaining the development levels of modern Europe.

 

Toward the close of his life he wrote: "My practical experience... during the last twenty-seven years has convinced me that what individuals have achieved, in spite of ill-selected systems of education, can be achieved by the race generally, provided we alter our educational methods."

 

In order to carry out that purpose he founded Achimota College for the training of native teachers and instructors. It was later to become the largest establishment for the education of native Africans.

 

The aim of Guggisberg's policy was the development of the country by and for the natives rather than for the benefit of European capitalists.