Smyly Gold Coast [i.e. Ghana] Collection, 1911-1929

A collection of photographs in an album, plus loose photographs and postcards. The photographs have been arranged in four groups; the album, loose prints, miscellaneous postcards, and British Empire Exhibition postcards. Unless otherwise indicated, the captions not in brackets were supplied by Miss Grace Smyly.

Plates 1-33 are in a red leather-bound album, 300 x 205 mm, with photographs stuck in or inserted in corners on 33 pages, 5 further pages with corners but no photographs, and a larger number of blank pages.

Sir Philip Crampton Smyly was appointed Chief Justice of the Gold Coast on 14 September 1911. The Governor at the time of his appointment was Sir James Thorburn, but most of his career in the Gold Coast was under two Governors of unusual qualities, Sir Hugh Clifford (1912-1919) and Sir Gordon Guggisberg (1919-1927).

Hugh Charles Clifford was born on 5 March 1866. In 1883 he joined the Malayan Service and in the course of a distinguished career there, became British Resident, Pahang. In 1903 he was appointed Colonial Secretary, Trinidad and Tobago, and in 1907 to the same post in Ceylon. He was Governor of the Gold Coast from 1912-1919, then of Nigeria 1919-1925 and Ceylon 1925-27. His final post was as High Commissioner for the Malay States, 1927-29, but his later years were overshadowed by mental illness. He died on 18 December 1941. Clifford was a man of varied interests and abilities, writing about Malaya in works of fact and fiction. As Ronald Wraith has written, 'he had a quick and subtle mind, a vast administrative experience in Malaya and ceylon, and a combative and liberal outlook'. Despite the problems of war conditions, he had husbanded the Colony's resources with care and skill'.

Elizabeth, Lady Clifford (1866-1945) was a popular novelist under her married name of Mrs Henry de la Pasture; the name was pronounced 'Delappeter'; her daughter also became a novelist under the name of E.M. Delafield. Her first husband died in 1908 and she married Sir Hugh Clifford in 1910. For her war work see under plate 1.

Frederick Gordon Guggisberg (1869-1930) was born in Canada, of Swiss descent, and after an English education was commissioned into the Royal Engineers in 1889. After service in Singapore and at Woolwich he was employed under the Colonial Office in 1902 on a survey of the Gold Coast. In 1905 he was appointed Director of Surveys; in 1910 he became Director of Surveys, Southern Nigeria, and in 1913 Surveyor-General of Nigeria. After war service, during which he was awarded the D.S.O., Guggisberg was appointed Governor of the Gold Coast in 1919. The influence of his wife played an important part in this choice, and Clifford deeply resented being succeeded by a man of limited experience. Nevertheless, Guggisberg proved to be an outstanding Governor, bringing many of Clifford's plans, e.g. the Korle Bu Hospital, to fruition, and initiating others, such as the deep water harbour at Takoradi and the founding of Achimota (see plates 37 and 49). He promoted the wider image of the Colony by inviting Edith Cheesman to paint a series of pictures (see 59-83), thirty-six of which were used for postcards sold at the British Empire Exhibition in 1924. Greater African recruitment for the public service was another aspect of his administration, which ended in 1927. From 1928 to 1929 he was Governor of British Guiana, but his term was cut short by ill-health, and he died in 1930.

Decima Moore had played Casilda in the original production of Gilbert and Sullivan's 'The Gondoliers' at the age of 18 in 1889. She and Guggisberg were married in 1905, each of their first marriages having ended in divorce. She accompanied him to the Gold Coast and was the principal author of Guggisberg and Guggisberg (1909). During the first World War she was extremely active as Honorary Organizer and Director-General of a Leave Club for the Forces in Paris and in other similar work, for which she was awarded the C.B.E. Guggisberg's appointment to the Governorship of the Gold Coast owed much to her influence, via Elinor Glyn, on Lord Milner. She was one of the Commissioners for the Gold Coast in the planning of the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley in 1924, but the marriage of what Ronald Wraith aptly calls 'two prima donnas' had broken down by the end of Guggisberg's term in the Gold Coast. Decima later called herself Lady Moore-Guggisberg; she gave further service in World War II and died in 1964, aged 93.

Given by Miss Grace Smyly, daughter of Sir Philip Crampton Smyly, together with those listed at Y30446L, in July 1988.

Please cite as Cambridge University Library: Royal Commonwealth Society Library, Smyly Gold Coast [i.e. Ghana] Collection, 1911-1929, Y30448L

For a full biographical treatment of Frederick Guggisberg see: Wraith, Ronald Edward (1967), 'Guggisberg', London: Oxford University Press; Wraith, Ronald Edward (1981), 'Frederick Gordon Guggisberg: myth and mystery', 'African Affairs', vol. 80, pp. 116-122.

The Guggisbergs' were the authors of: Guggisberg, Decima Moore and Guggisberg, Frederick Gordon, (1909), 'We two in West Africa', London: W. Heinemann.

For portraits of Sir Hugh Clifford see the RCS Portrait Collection 7/21 and Box 2. For other photographs see Y30448C, Y3043DD (Nigeria), BAM 3/46 and BAM 7/21 (Malaya). For extensive material on Achimota see Y30448H-J. For portraits of Frederick Guggisberg see Y30448E. For other photographs see Y3043C/483.

Indexed

This collection level description was entered by SG using information from the original typescript catalogue.