Gordon Guggisberg

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Sir

Frederick Gordon Guggisberg

Chevalier of the Legion of Honour
Spouse(s)Ethel Emily Hamilton Way, m. 1895, div. 1904; Decima Moore, m. 1905–his death

KCMG, DSO, (20 July 1869 – 21 April 1930) was a senior Canadian-born British Army officer and British Empire
colonial administrator. He published a number of works on military topics and Africa.

Early life

Guggisberg was born in

Bern, Switzerland
, in 1832. He was the eldest son born to merchant Frederick Guggisberg and his wife Dora Louisa Willson.

After moving to

captain in 1900,[1] the year he published The Shop: The Story of the Royal Military Academy. In 1903 he published Modern Warfare under the pseudonym "Ubique".[2][3][4][5]

Career and later life

Sir Frederick Gordon Guggisberg self-portrait - 1922

In September 1902 Guggisberg was employed by the

Chatham for regimental work, but in 1910 was appointed director of survey in Southern Nigeria
.

Nigeria gave him full scope for his energies and organizational skills, and he compiled The Handbook of the Southern Nigeria Survey (1911) for the guidance of his assistants. Of this work the director-general of the ordnance survey wrote:

"The duties of all members of the staff were strictly defined and, in particular, sensible rules were laid down as to the relations of the staff with the civil administration. Much attention was paid to the treatment of villagers; unpaid labour was forbidden; all goods bought were to be paid for at the recognized rate, and great care was to be exercised not to damage the crops.... They were model instructions and the survey of Nigeria was a model survey."[7]

Following the union of the

brigadier-general commanding the 170th (2/1st North Lancashire) Brigade 1917–1918, assistant-inspector-general of training, general headquarters, France, in 1918; and in command of the 100th Brigade in 1918. He was mentioned in dispatches five times, and was awarded the Distinguished Service Order
in 1918.

In 1919, Guggisberg was appointed

Albert 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

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. In 1928 Guggisberg was appointed governor and commander-in-chief of British Guiana, but owing to failing health he was obliged to leave the colony in 1929, and soon afterwards resigned the appointment. He introduced drastic administrative reforms and devoted himself energetically to the problems of maintaining and improving the system of drainage and irrigation upon which the sugar and rice cultivation of the colony depended. He also promoted immigration and peasant settlement and the development of the production and marketing of rice. These activities were cut short by his illness and resignation in 1929. He died at Bexhill-on-Sea, Sussex, at the age of 60.

During his last illness Guggisberg addressed to his personal friends a remarkable letter setting forth the aims which he had had in view in his administrative work in British Guiana, his confidence in divine guidance and in the spirit of Christianity, and his hope of being able to return to Africa "to try to do some more work for the African races.... As you know," he concluded, "my heart is in Africa, and I believe that away from the trammels of the Colonial Office, there is opportunity for me to do something useful both for the Empire and for the natives of Africa."[13][14][15]

Honours and family

Guggisberg was a tall and athletic figure, as a young man very handsome, and always of impressive and dignified presence. His personality was attractive and inspiring. He was for some years captain of the Royal Engineers'

Chevalier of the Legion of Honour
in 1917.

Guggisberg married twice:

  • On 20 September 1895 in
    Northumberland Fusiliers
    , whom he divorced in 1904 and by whom he had three daughters.
  • On 15 August 1905 in Staines to (Lilian) Decima Moore, the actress, daughter of Edward Henry Moore, of Brighton, county analyst. She accompanied him on his survey journeys, and their joint book, We Two in West Africa (1909), is an interesting account of their life as well as of a transitional phase in West African development.

Guggisberg died in 1930 in

Korle-Bu Hospital, Accra
, inaugurated in 1974, on the 50th anniversary of the founding of the hospital

There are male dormitories named after Guggisberg at the Eastern compound of Achimota School in Accra, Ghana, Bagabaga College of Education in Tamale, Ghana, and Prempeh College in Kumasi, Ghana.

Ethnic background and religious affiliation

Despite the occasional rumours about Guggisberg's background and religious faith being Jewish, it has been thoroughly documented that he was not. His family has long recorded ancestry in the farming village of

Bern, Switzerland, going back even further, to the late 14th century and beyond. The family were adherents to the Evangelical Reformed National Church of Canton Bern (Evangelisch-Reformierte Landeskirche des Kantons Bern) since 1528, when Bern introduced the Protestant Reformation to all its territories, a faith Guggisberg's emigrant grandfather continued to follow throughout his lifetime while in Canada. Guggisberg himself, because of his mother, was baptized and raised in the Anglican denomination, a faith that he piously adhered to until his death.[16][17][18][19]

Books authored by Guggisberg

Notes

  1. ^ "No. 27167". The London Gazette. 20 February 1900. p. 1172.
  2. ^ Ronald E. Wraith, Guggisberg, West African History Series, Oxford University Press, 1967, 342 pp., 8 plates.
  3. ^ R. E. Wraith, Frederick Gordon Guggisberg: Myth and Mystery, Oxford Journals, Social Sciences, African Affairs, Volume 80, Issue 318, pp. 116–122, Oxford University Press, 1981.
  4. ^ D. A. Guggisberg, Guggisberg Genealogien Redondo Beach, Calif. 1999
  5. ^ A. H. M. Kirke-Greene, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, "Guggisberg Sir (Frederick) Gordon [pseud. Ubique] (1869-1930), army office and colonial governor", 2004 and October 2006
  6. ^ "Survey of the Gold Coast". The Times. No. 36879. London. 22 September 1902. p. 4.
  7. ^ "Guggisberg - the history and genealogy of a unique surname from Bern, Switzerland". Archived from the original on 14 April 2007. Retrieved 16 April 2007.
  8. ISBN 1-847347-38-X
    , p. 89.
  9. ISBN 1-847347-39-8
    , p. 67.
  10. ISBN 978-1-843426-80-6
    , pp. 231–33.
  11. ISBN 0679205071
    .
  12. ^ F. G. Guggisberg and A. G. Fraser, The Future of the Negro, 1929.
  13. ^ Ronald E. Wraith, 'Guggisberg', West African History Series, Oxford University Press, 1967, 342 pp., 8 plates
  14. ^ "- Guggisberg burial site". Archived from the original on 26 February 2017. Retrieved 8 June 2016.
  15. ^ Daniel Guggisberg. "Brigadier-General Sir Frederick Gordon Guggisberg". The British Empire. Archived from the original on 4 July 2016. Retrieved 8 June 2016.
  16. ^ R. E. Wraith, Frederick Gordon Guggisberg: Myth and Mystery, Oxford Journals, Social Sciences, African Affairs, Volume 80, Issue 318, pp. 116–122, Oxford University Press 1981
  17. ^ A. H. M. Kirke-Greene, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, "Guggisberg Sir (Frederick) Gordon [pseud. Ubique] (1869-1930), army office and colonial governor", 2004 and October 2006.
  18. ISBN 2827101130
    .
  19. ^ D. A. Guggisberg, Guggisberg Genealogien, Redondo Beach, Calif. 1999.

External links

Government offices
Preceded by
Alexander Ransford Slater
, acting
Governor of the Gold Coast

1919–1927 		Succeeded by
James Crawford Maxwell
, acting
Preceded by
Governor of British Guiana

1928–1930 		Succeeded by
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