Edmund Bannerman

Journalist, newspaper proprietor and lawyer in the Gold Coast (c. 1832–1903)

For the Chief Justice of Ghana, see Edmund Alexander Lanquaye Bannerman.

Edmund Bannerman (1832 – 17 April 1903) was a journalist, newspaper proprietor, solicitor and man of public affairs in the British colony of the Gold Coast.[1] He was one of many members of the Bannerman family who flourished in the 19th-century Gold Coast in various public activities.

## Biography

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Edmund Bannerman was born in about 1832 in Accra, Gold Coast,[1] the third son of James Bannerman and Yaa Hom, daughter of the Asantehene (king of Asante) Osei Yaw Akoto.[1][2] Bannerman was sent at the age of six to public school in his grandfather's native United Kingdom, where his older brothers Charles and James were also being educated.[1]

Bannerman returned from Britain in 1847 and served for about nine years as secretary to several Gold Coast governors. He was known as the "Boss of Tarkwa", or "B of T", after his imposing residence, Tarqua(h) (Tarkwa) House, in Jamestown, Accra, and "he became popular with the Ga people for his agitation against policies of the colonial regime."[3]

In March 1858, Bannerman was appointed as Civil Commandant of Keta by the Secretary of State for the Colonies, and was made a Justice of the Peace. In 1860, he was transferred to Winneba in a similar capacity. In 1864, after leaving government service, he was admitted to practise as advocate and attorney in the Courts of the Settlements. In 1877, he practised as a solicitor and in 1879 was made a Commissioner of Oaths.[4]

After the death of his brother Charles, he succeeded him as the proprietor and editor of the West African Herald. Bannerman was also a special correspondent to the West African Times.[4]

Bannerman died at the age of 71, on 17 April 1903, at his residence in Jamestown, Accra.

## See also

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* Gold Coast Euro-Africans

## References

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1. ^ a b c d Is Ephson. "The Gallery of Gold Coast Celebrities: Edmund Bannerman; 1832–1903". Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 10 March 2013.
2. ^ John Parker (2000). Making the Town: Ga State and Society in Early Colonial Accra. Pearson Education. p. 66\. ISBN 9780325001906.
3. ^ De-Valera NYM Botchway, Boxing is no Cakewalk!: Azumah 'Ring Professor' Nelson in the Social History of Ghanaian Boxing, African Humanities Program, 2019, p. 78, note 17.
4. ^ a b "Edmund Bannerman (Born 1832–Died 1903) - As a man of wit", in Magnus J. Sampson, Gold Coast Men of Affairs (Past and Present), with an Introduction by J. B. Danquah, London: Dawsons of Pall Mall, 1937; 1969 reprint, pp. 86–89.

## External links

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* "The Bannerman Political Family and the Imperial Franchise (1850-63)", Joy Online, 4 March 2019.