Joseph Arthur Ankrah

Joseph Arthur Ankrah was an army general who led Ghana as chairman of the National Liberation Council from 1966 to 1969, the country's first military head of state. He was born in Accra on 18 August 1915 and died on 25 November 1992.

Soldier

He went to Accra Academy and joined the Gold Coast Regiment in 1939, serving in the Royal West African Frontier Force during the Second World War. In 1947 he became the first African officer commissioned in the Gold Coast Army, and in 1956 the first African to command an all-African company. Serving with the UN in the Congo in 1961, he disarmed a soldier who was trying to shoot Patrice Lumumba and carried the prime minister to safety, and he was the only Ghanaian awarded the Military Cross there. That year he became the first Ghanaian commander of the Ghana Army.

Head of state

Nkrumah dismissed him in July 1965 on suspicion of plotting a coup. After the coup of 24 February 1966 he became chairman of the National Liberation Council and head of state, and that year also chaired the Organisation of African Unity. He resigned in April 1969 over a bribery scandal and was succeeded by Akwasi Afrifa.