Edmund Bannerman


Edmund Bannerman was a journalist, newspaper proprietor and lawyer in the British colony of the Gold Coast. He was one of the many Bannermans who flourished in the 19th-century Gold Coast in various public activities.

Biography

Edmund Bannerman was born in 1832 in Accra, the third son of James Bannerman and Yahom, daughter of the king of Ashanti Osei Yaw Akoto. Bannerman was sent at the age of six to school in his grandfather's native United Kingdom, where his brothers Charles and James were also being educated. He returned from Britain in 1847 and served for about nine years as secretary to several Gold Coast governors. In March 1858 he 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.
After the death of his brother Charles, he succeeded him as the proprietor and editor of the West African Herald. He was also a special correspondent to the West African Times.
He died at the age of 71, on 17 April 1903, at his residence in James Town, Accra.