Joseph Arthur Ankrah

Military career

Ankrah joined the Gold Coast Regiment in 1939. On the outbreak of World War II, Ankrah was mobilized into the Royal West African Frontier Force. While his Brigade was in East Africa in 1940, he was transferred to the Record Office in Accra with the rank of Warrant Officer Class II and made second-in-command. In October 1946, he went to the Marshfield Officer Cadets Training Unit in the United Kingdom and graduated in February 1947 as the first African officer in the Gold Coast Army. He was commissioned a lieutenant in 1947 and became the first African camp commandant at the Army Headquarters. He was later made the first Ghanaian Chief Instructor of the Education Unit. He was promoted Major in 1956 and became the first African to command an all-African company, the Charlie Company of the First Battalion at Tamale, Ghana. He later became Lieutenant Colonel and took over the whole battalion. He rose to the rank of colonel by 1960, at a time when there were few Ghanaian officers at that level. During the United Nations Operation in the Congo, he was the Brigade Commander of the force-based at Luluabourg, Kasai in the present-day Democratic Republic of Congo. He was the only Ghanaian awarded the Military Cross in Leopoldville for acts of unsurpassed gallantry in Congo in 1961. The citation read:

With great common sense, maturity and tact, this officer handled a delicate situation which otherwise would have created grave consequences in Leopoldville and many parts of the Congo. Colonel Ankrah, with complete disregard for his own life, disarmed an Armée Nationale Congolaise (ANC) soldier who, with a loaded sten machine carbine, attempted to shoot Mr. Lumumba. He carried the Prime Minister to safety in a vehicle which was fired on by ANC ambushers. Had it not been for the quick and bold action of Colonel Ankrah at the risk of his life, Mr. Lumumba's life would have been taken with untold consequences at that time.

After his experience in the Congo, he was promoted to Brigadier. In 1961 when President Nkrumah dismissed Major-General Alexander, Ghanaian officers had to take over. Ankrah was promoted to command the Ghana Army becoming the first Ghanaian commander of the Ghana army in 1961. He later became deputy to Major-General S.J.A. Otu, the Chief of Defence Staff. Ankrah was dismissed from the Ghana army in July 1965 on suspicion of involvement in a coup plot.

Politics

Following the leakage of information suggesting their involvement in a potential coup plot, Lieutenant-General Joseph Arthur Ankrah and Major General S.J.A. Otu were dismissed from the Ghana Army in July 1965 on suspicion of conspiracy against President Kwame Nkrumah. Ankrah subsequently entered the financial sector and was appointed Director of the National Investment Bank.

After the 24 February 1966 coup d'état that overthrew Nkrumah, the coup leaders Emmanuel Kwasi Kotoka and Akwasi Afrifa invited Ankrah to serve as Chairman of the National Liberation Council (NLC) and Head of State of Ghana. Ankrah was Ghana's first military head of state, holding office from 24 February 1966 until his resignation in April 1969 amid a bribery scandal involving a Nigerian businessman, Arthur Nzeribe.

In January 1967, he mediated between the warring factions of the Nigerian Civil War in Biafra. He was forced to resign as Chairman of the NLC and Head of State over a bribery scandal involving a Nigerian businessman.

Sports

Ankrah served as the first ever President of the Council of Patrons of Accra Hearts of Oak S.C. and steered the football club for a long period.

Family

In 1965 he married his third wife, Mildred Christina Akosiwor Fugar (12 June 1938 – 9 June 2005), in Accra. His son also went to Accra Academy. He had a daughter called Jackie Ankrah who is a broadcaster, songwriter and musician. He had several wives and 18 children.