Charles Arden-Clarke

Sir Charles Noble Arden-Clarke (1898 – 1962) was a British colonial administrator.

He was the Resident Commissioner of the Bechuanaland Protectorate between 1937 and 1942 (later Botswana), a time at which the ruling regent Tschekedi Khama was in violent conflict with the British authorities^[1]. In 1946, he was appointed as the first Governor of the newly-created British Crown Colony of Sarawak, which was ceded in 1946 by the Kingdom of Sarawak. During his governorship in Sarawak, he was despised by locals as upon his appointment, Sarawak was engulfed with the Anti-cession Movement, which led to the assassination of his successor, Sir George Duncan Stewart in 1949 by the radical members of the Anti-cession movement.

After Sarawak, he was the last governor of the Gold Coast from August 1949^[2] until 1957 (later Ghana). On February 12, 1951, he authorized Kwame Nkrumah's release from imprisonment in James Fort. After independence, he was named the first Governor-General of Ghana in 1957. Arden-Clarke's acceptance of the Africans and his attitude towards Kwame Nkrumah led to the success of Ghana's independence.

References

1. ^ Birmingham, David. Kwame Nkrumah: The Father of African Nationalism (Revised Edition). Ohio University Press. 1998. p.38-39.
2. ^ Birmingham, David. Kwame Nkrumah: The Father of African Nationalism (Revised Edition). Ohio University Press. 1998. p.38-39.