Benutzer:Kochensperger/Frederick Gordon Guggisberg

Brigadier-General Sir Frederick Gordon Guggisberg

Profession	Soldier and Administrator
Born	1869
Place of Birth	Galt, Ontario
Died	1930

Brigadier-General Sir Frederick Gordon Guggisberg, K.C.M.G., D.S.O., R.E. (1869-1930), soldier and administrator, was born at Galt, Ontario, Canada, on the 20th July 1869, a second-generation descendant of an immigrant from Berne, Switzerland, the eldest son of Frederick Guggisberg, retail- goods merchant, of Galt, by his wife, Dora Louisa Willson. Coming to England about 1879, Guggisberg was educated at Burney's School, near Portsmouth; entered the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, in 1887, and was commissioned in the Royal Engineers in 1889. He served at Singapore from 1893 to 1896, and became instructor in fortification at Woolwich in 1897. In this office he distinguished himself by reforming the methods and syllabus of instruction. In 1900 he published The Shop: The Story of the Royal Military Academy, and, under the pseudonym "Ubique", Modern Warfare, in 1903.

In 1902 Guggisberg was employed under the Colonial Office on a special survey of the Gold Coast Colony and Ashanti, and in 1905 was appointed director of surveys in that colony. In 1908 he returned to Chatham for regimental work: but in 1910 was appointed director of surveys in Southern Nigeria. Here he found full scope for his energies and capacity for organization and for the guidance of his assistants compiled The Handbook of the Southern Nigeria Survey (1911). 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. On the union of Southern and Northern Nigeria in 1913 Guggisberg was appointed surveyor-general of Nigeria. In 1914 he was appointed director of public works on the Gold Coast, but on the outbreak of the European War rejoined the army, and commanded the 94th field company, Royal Engineers, from 1915 to 1916; he was in command of the Royal Engineers in the 8th division during the battle of the Somme (July 1916), and in the 66th division from November 1916. He was brigadier-general commanding the 170th infantry brigade 1917-1918, assistant-inspector-general of training, general headquarters, France, in 1918; and in command of the 100th infantry brigade in 1918. He was mentioned in dispatches five times, and was awarded the D.S.O. (1918).

In 1919 Guggisberg was appointed governor and commander-in-chief of the Gold Coast. There he energetically undertook works of development and extension of railways, and created the deep water harbour of Takoradi superseding the use of surf-boats for handling traffic. In 1923 he commissioned the construction of Korle-Bu Hospital in Accra, the finest and most modern institution of its kind in colonial Africa at the time. Close association with native Africans during his survey work convinced Guggisberg that the African races are capable of eventually attaining the development levels of Europe. Toward the close of his life he wrote: "My practical experience . . . during the last twenty-seven years has convinced me that what individuals have achieved, in spite of ill-selected systems of education, can be achieved by the race generally, provided we alter our educational methods" [G. Guggisberg and A. G. Fraser, The Future of the Negro, 1929]. In order to carry out that purpose he founded Achimota College for the training of native teachers and instructors; it was to become the largest and most complete establishment for the education of native Africans. The aim of Guggisberg's whole policy was the development of the country by and for the native rather than for the benefit of European capitalists. In l928 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 on the 21st April 1930.

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."

Guggisberg was of tall and athletic figure, as a young man very handsome, and always of impressive and dignified presence. His personality was attractive and inspiriting. He was for some years captain of the Royal Engineers' cricket eleven, and was a fine player of polo, racquets, golf, and football. He was created C.M.G. in 1908 and K.C.M.G. in 1922, and was made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour in 1917.

Guggisberg was twice married: first, on the 20th September 1895 in Trichinopoly, Madras Presidency, South India to Ethel Emily Hamilton Way, daughter of Colonel Wilfred FitzAlan Way, of the Northumberland Fusiliers whom he divorced in 1904 and by whom he had three daughters; secondly, on the 15th 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 study of a transitional phase in West African development.

In 1973 on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the construction of Korle-Bu Hospital in Accra, the Ghanaian government honoured Guggisberg with the erection of a large statue, a rare tribute paid by a post-colonial government to one of it's colonial governors.

Lady Decima Guggisberg

Born	1871
Place of Birth	Brighton, Sussex
Died	1964

Lady Decima Guggisberg, C.B.E. was born Lilian Decima Moore in Brighton, Sussex on the 11th December 1871, the tenth daughter of Edward Henry Moore, county analytical chemist for Sussex, and was educated at Boswell House College from which she won a scholarship to the Blackheath Conservatoire of Music. Moore made her debut in London, aged 17, at the Savoy Theatre on the 7th December 1889, playing 'Casilda' in the Gilbert and Sullivan opera The Gondoliers. It was a hit and more work followed. Two of her roles mentioned by George Bernard Shaw in his book, 'Our Theatres in the Nineties', were in The White Silk Dress and Lost, Stolen and Strayed. In 1901 Moore was playing in both 'A Diplomatic Theft' at the Garrick Theatre, London and 'The Swineherd and the Princess' at the Royalty. She had four sisters, all of whom were on the concert platform or the stage as singers. Her preferred roles were in musical comedy and light drama. In 1932 Moore appeared in the film Nine till Six.

On the 18th September 1894 in Richmond, New York, whilst touring in the show 'The Gaiety Girl', Moore married a fellow cast member, Cecil Ainslie Walker-Leigh. Later, in 1896, to please her mother, she had a church wedding in London. Cecil was a career officer in the British Army, born at Ballyseedy Castle, Tralee, Ireland and who served in the Boer and Great War, retiring with the rank of Colonel. A son was born in 1898, William Esmond Ormond Walker-Leigh, but Moore subsequently divorced her husband, the divorce being finalised in 1902.

On the 15th August 1905 in Staines, Middlesex she became the second wife of Major Frederick Gordon Guggisberg, (later Brigadier-General Sir Frederick Gordon Guggisberg, K.C.M.G., D.S.O., R.E.) who was to become Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Gold Coast and British Guiana. Four years later she published jointly with him "We Two in West Africa", an informative account of life in that country at an interesting period in its development. Moore continued to act in the theatre until 1914, after which, on the outbreak of the First World War, she was engaged on war work in France. She founded the Women's Emergency Corps and also established a number of leave clubs in France, most notably the British Navy, Army and Air Force Leave Club in Paris of which she was the honorary organiser and director general. She was awarded the C.B.E. (Commander of the British Empire) in 1918.

At the time when her husband was a colonial governor, she acted with great success as exhibition commissioner and chairman of the Gold Coast Pavillon at the British Empire Exhibitions at Wembley in 1923, 1924 and 1925. In the Second World War she reestablished the British Leave Club in Paris and left the city in June 1940, only a few hours before the entry of the Germans, leaving on the doors of the club a notice "Temporarily Closed". Lady Decima Moore-Guggisberg died in Kensington, London at the age of 93 on the 18th February 1964. Trivia: her younger sister, Eva Moore, was the mother of Jill Esmond, the first wife of actor Laurence Olivier.