SIR CHARLES WILLIAM TACHIE-MENSON
Sir Charles William Tachie-Menson (1889 – October 17, 1962), who had a distinguished career in public service, was the first African Chairman of the Public Service Commission (from 1960 onwards, the Civil Service Commission).
He was born at Butre, in the Ahanta Area, in the southwest corner of what is now Ghana, in 1889, the son of Robert Bonku Menson of Elmina and of Mami Bonku Eson of Axim. He was educated at Elmina, and at Shama Methodist School. He joined the Elder Dempster Shipping Lines in about 1910, and worked for the company for the next 35 years, spending a spell in the firm’s offices in Liverpool, England. In 1918 he married Fanny French, and had one son and three daughters by this marriage.
His career in public service was an outstanding one. From 1936 – 1949 he was councillor of Sekondi Takoradi Town Council, and in 1944 was elected as the member for Sekondi on the Legislative Council. From 1946 – 1951 he was a member of the Executive Council. He served on the Coussey Committee on Constitutional Reform in 1949, and was the chairman of the Achimota Constitutional Conference of 1956. Earlier, in 1951, he was appointed a member of the Public Service Commission, and after independence became its chairman in 1957. He remained its chairman when, in 1960, its title was changed to the Civil Service Commission.
He was also a director of the West African Airways Corporation (1946 – 1952), of the Gold Coast Industrial Development Board (1948 – 1951), and was a director of Barclays Bank D. C. O. (Dominions, Colonies, Overseas), and of the Chamber of Mines. He was elected the first general president of the Gold Coast (later Ghana) Trades Union Congress.
He led an active social life, being the founder of the Sekondi Optimism Literary Club, one of the earliest and most successful organisations of its kind. He was also Right Worshipful District Grand Master of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons of the English Constitution. He was also a keen sportsman, being particularly fond of cricket.
He received several decorations, being awarded the Gold Coast Certificate of Honour and Badge in 1934, and the O. B. E. (Order of the British Empire) in 1947, and became a commander of the Order of the British Empire (C. B. E.) in 1955. He was Knighted in 1960. He died in London in 1962.
KOFI GEORGE KONUAH
