Edward Akufo-Addo JSC

Second President of Ghana.

Call 1940, Middle Temple

Edward Akufo-Addo was born in Dodowa, Ghana in 1906, and was educated in Akropong and later at the University of Oxford. He joined Middle Temple in 1937 and was called to the Bar in 1940, going on to practise in the law in Accra.

He was, in 1947, a founding member of the United Gold Coast Convention, a political party set up to campaign for Ghanaian independence, and was one of the ‘Big Six’ (including Kwame Nkrumah) who were detained in 1948.

Following Ghanaian independence in 1960, Akufo-Addo was appointed a Justice of the Supreme Court of Ghana, and served as Chief Justice of Ghana from 1966 to 1970. In 1970, he became President of the Republic of Ghana, serving until deposed in a coup d’état in 1972, dying in 1979. His son, Nana Akufo-Addo, is the current President of Ghana and a member of Middle Temple.