Alec Garden Fraser - Achimota College & School

Achimota College & School

In 1924, the Gold Coast colonial government approved the funding for the proposed Prince of Wales College and School, now known as “Achimota School”, as part of Governor Guggisberg’s education reform program for the Gold Coast.

Apparently, Rev. Fraser and Dr. Aggrey first met in January 1924 at the home of Dr. J. H. Oldham at Chipstead in Surrey, United Kingdom.

"Oldham recalled his conversation with Aggrey on the proposed Achimota College: "We started discussing people, and I sounded Aggrey on the names of several people who had been mentioned as possible Headmasters. He shook his head in each case. Then I said to him, 'Would you go with Fraser?' He said 'Oh yes, I'd go with Fraser!' I said 'What in the world do you know about Fraser that makes you so confident about him when you have been so doubtful about all the other people?' He said 'Don't you remember that four years ago we lunched at a restaurant in Soho, Mr. and Mrs. Fraser and you and your wife, before going to a matinée?' And I said, 'Do you mean to tell me, Aggrey, that on the strength of a lunch four years ago, you are absolutely clear that you would go with Fraser?' 'Yes,' he said; 'absolutely clear.' 'All right!' I said; and I went into the other room where the telephone was. Alek was at Oxford, and I wired, 'Can you come for the week-end to meet Aggrey?' And he did. He came on the Saturday, and they went out for a walk on the Sunday afternoon; and they came back to say they would go.""

Rev. Fraser left his position as Principal of the Trinity College, Ceylon, and accepted the position as Achimota School’s first Principal. He and Dr. Aggrey, the School’s first Vice Principal, supervised the construction and equipping of Achimota School. Rev. Fraser and the other founders made personal sacrifices to realize their dream of the first co-educational institution in the Gold Coast. They battled racism and harsh, and often unfounded, criticism. "To prepare Achimota School for its opening, Rev. Fraser and Dr. Aggrey hammered nails when they required hammering; they scrubbed floors and washed windows."

Classes commenced at Achimota School on 27 February 1926, then known as the “Prince of Wales College and School” and it was formally opened by the Governor, Sir Guggisberg, on 28 January 1927.

When Dr. Aggrey died in the USA on 30 July 1927, Rev. Fraser wrote:

'Williams could fill my place. No one can fill Aggrey's. It was he who persuaded me to go to Achimota in the first place, and I made it a condition of my going that he should come with me and help me to know the people and their outlook. He came at pecuniary loss, to begin with, and nobly he did his special work. He had marvellous power over people. It was not only his great oratorial gifts and sparkling kindly humour, but it was his transparent sincerity, his intense belief in them, his ardent love of Africa, and his flaming purity ... I have often been asked if Aggrey was worth it. If Achimota has caught the imagination of West Africa today, and I believe it has, it is due to Aggrey more than any other six men ... In Achimota we lose more than we can yet understand. But of the many good things I have been freely given in life, one of the best is the intimate friendship given me by Aggrey'.