Thomas Hutton-Mills Sr.

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Thomas Hutton-Mills (born: Thomas Hutton Mills; born June 13, 1865 in Accra , † March 4, 1931 in Accra) was a lawyer and nationalist leader in the Gold Coast . He was often referred to as Thomas Hutton-Mills Senior to differentiate himself from his son Thomas Hutton-Mills Junior, who was a lawyer and diplomat.

Life

Thomas Hutton Mills was the son of Nil Emma Bannermann, the second daughter of Governor James Bannermann and John Edward Hutton Mills, a trader in James Town . He spent his school years at the Wesleyan School in Accra and in Cape Coast, the Wesleyan High School in Freetown, Sierra Leone , Harrow School and at the University of Cambridge in England.

His working life began as a commercial clerk in the office of his uncle Edmund Bannermann , a lawyer and owner of a newspaper. He was then a government secretary in the Queen's Advocate General's office until he was dismissed for participating in protests in September 1886. In 1886 he married Florence Nanka-Bruce, a sister of Frederick Nanka-Bruce, after her untimely death he married her sister Emma Nanka-Bruce.

Hutton-Mills traveled to England in 1891 to study law in the Middle Temple , returned to Accra in 1894 and practiced as a lawyer. In 1897 he appeared prominently in the debate on city administration and regulation of compulsory labor, the Compulsory Labor Ordinances. In 1898 he was the first African attorney to be elected to the Parliament of Ghana , then the Legislative Council, served the council from 1898 to 1904 and again from 1909 to 1919. He was a member of the Accra City Council from 1905 to 1911. As the main advisor to Kojo Ababio, he campaigned for human rights in the Alata district of Accra. In 1920 he was elected the first president of the National Congress of British West Africa (NCBWA).

His descendants still live in Accra today, including the Ghanaian disc jockey William Nanka-Bruce.

literature

  • Thomas Hutton-Mills (Born 1865 – Died 1931) As a statesman . In: Magnus J. Sampson: Gold Coast Men of Affairs (Past and Present). With an Introduction by JB Danquah. Dawsons of Pall Mall, London 1937; 1969 Reprint, pp. 150-54.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Michael R. Doortmont: The Pen Pictures of Modern Africans and African Celebrities by Charles Francis Hutchison: A Collective Biography of Elite Society in the Gold Coast Colony. Brill, Leiden 2005, p. 261.
  2. ^ John Parker: Making the Town: Ga state and society in early Colonial Accra. P. 191.
  3. ^ Daniel Miles McFarland: Historical Dictionary of Ghana. Scarecrow Press, 1995, p. 98.
personal data
SURNAME Hutton-Mills, Thomas Sr.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hutton-Mills, Thomas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Ghanaian politician
DATE OF BIRTH June 13, 1865
PLACE OF BIRTH Accra
DATE OF DEATH March 4, 1931
Place of death Accra