Ghanaian soldier fired the first gunshot for the British Army in WWI

 

“The Ghanaian soldier Who fired the first gunshot for the British Army in WWI”

Today started the launch of the Poppy appeal in the UK towards the Armistice celebrations and support for our veterans .In Ghana,  celebrations and wreath laying are significant tributes paid to war veterans who served in world wars.

In my days at Ghanaian high schools and primary schools, history books did not adequately highlight the significant contributions of Ghanaian soldiers during the Great Wars. Instead, they often focused on their return home and the subsequent tragic events, particularly the incident at Christianborg Castle on February 28, 1948, where they protested for their promised entitlements, ultimately leading to violence.

The War servicemen were marched from Accra to the Christiansborg Castle to present a petition to the governor over their unpaid war benefit

Statue of Ex Service Men 

The contingent, led by British Police Superintendent, Mr Colin Imray, ordered that they disperse and when they refused to obey, he gave an order to the police to open fire; and the three ex-servicemen were killed.

The ex-soldiers had fought alongside the allied forces in the Gold Coast Regiment of the Royal West African Frontier Force during the Second World War and had returned home poor but they were not paid their gratuity.

After several appeals to the colonial government to consider their plight had failed, the ex-servicemen decided that a direct appeal should be made to the British colonial governor of the Gold Coast, hence the march.

During World War II, some 65,000 Ghanaians were under the command of British officers in the Royal West African Frontier Force, and since India was the transit and refuelling station for those en route to Burma, the 30,000 who served there briefly experienced life in both countries.

BATTLE FRONT

The tension between Britain and Germany caused the formation of several battalions under their colonies to train and prepare for war and the Gold Coast Regiment successfully raised five battalions ready for service during the war of which Lance Corporal Alhaji Grunshi was a part of the first Battalion to be sent to Togoland when war was declared.

Following rising tension, the British declared war on August 4, 1914, and immediately sent the Battalion from Ghana to enter Togoland which was a German territory and home to the Kamina radio station which was by then a sophisticated radio station that could send and receive telegraph messages from Germany to forward to other smaller stations in the African colonies and ships.

On August 7, 1914, a patrol which included Alhaji Grunshi and several other soldiers fighting for the British Army entered a factory in Nuatja, Togoland. The patrol was immediately confronted by a group of German police officers and sergeants and the police opened fire at the British soldiers.

In defence, Alhaji Grunshi opened fire at the German group making history as the first shot recorded under the British Army in World War I. The next recorded gunshot was fired by Sergeant Trooper E. Thomas in Europe ten days after Alhaji Grunshi’s shot.

In Togoland, the Germans who felt outnumbered decided to leave Togoland and destroyed the Kamina radio station on August 24, 1914, which was started in 1911. The Germans then opened negotiations for a truce on the 25th. On the 26th August 1914 the acting German governor, Major von Doering agreed to surrender.

Alhaji Grunshi went on to fight in the 4-year war and made it out alive. After returning to Ghana, he became a Lance Corporal and in 1919 he was awarded the Military Medal for his part in the East African Campaign. He also became a sergeant and on 13 March 1919, he was awarded a Distinguished Conduct Medal. He was one of eight on that occasion.

Alhaji Grunshi was from Dagbon in northern Ghana and part of his family is believed to have settled in Burkina Faso. Grunshi, who was popularly called Alhaji because of his religion joined the Army in 1908 and remained in service till 1924.

Largely, his story has gone missing and details about his life and how or why he joined the army have been left undiscovered. His name is hardly mentioned in the history of Ghana or the British army as one of the Africans who should be celebrated .

Whatever the case, it is a very interesting piece of history that the first gunshot fired by the declarers of World War I was in Africa and by a Colonised African soldier.

Ghanaian Veterans at a Remembrance Day celebration at Accra 

116 children and 28 adults buried Alive in welsh Town of Aberfan 1966.

            Haunting Picture from the disaster in 1966

Aberfan disaster: Marking 54 years since disaster struck the south Wales village

 It was a Friday morning on October 21, 1966, shortly after 9:00 a.m. In the South Wales coal mining village of Aberfan, students at the Pantglas Junior School had just began their day's lessons after singing the hymn "All Things Bright and Beautiful," as they did on every other school day before it.

And then, as a woman who lost both her brother and sister in the disaster told England's Channel 4 News in 2016, there was "just a traumatic loud, loud banging noise, and it just got louder and louder and louder. Something was coming." The approaching sound was in fact a landslide of liquified coal waste descending down a mountain slope above, and it decimated several farm cottages on the slope before it reached the school.

MIRRORPIXGETTY IMAGES

There had been weeks of heavy rainfall in the village, according to The Independent, and rainwater had saturated the colliery tip. For those whose knowledge of mining could fit in a thimble (ahem), a colliery tip is a pile made of spoil—a.k.a. coal mining waste material—and the rain buildup caused that particular colliery tip to collapse. The ensuing slurry engulfed the Pantglas Junior School with sludgy waste too quickly for anyone to stop what happened next.

The disaster killed 116 children and 28 adults.

"I knew as soon as I came out of the class that my sister was gone," Brian Williams, who was 7 years old at the time, told Wales Online. "You only had to look up the top end of the school and it was just...well, it wasn’t there." Jeff Edwards, who was the last child to be lifted from the school's rubble alive after 90 minutes, told the BBC that he "could hear crying and screaming. As time went on they got quieter and quieter as children died, they were buried and running out of air.”

            Aftermath of the Disaster 

The rescue effort included first responders, and village residents including the coal miners who ran down to help. Welsh journalist John Humphrys told The Telegraphwhat he saw reporting on the scene: "And there they were when I arrived, their faces still black—save for the streaks of white from the sweat and the tears as they dug and prayed and wept. Most of them were digging for their own children.” Though they continued to dig for a week, no survivors were found after the first day.

A mass funeral for 81 of the children killed.

GEORGE FRESTONGETTY IMAGES

The accident was preventable.

Prior to the disaster, Aberfan residents had already voiced concern about the fact that there was essentially an 100-foot tall pile of waste hovering above a school full of young children—even in letters to the National Coal Board (NCB). England's House of Lords launched an inquiry that found the NCB largely responsible for the disaster in a reportpublished the following year. As politician Emlyn Hooson said in 1967, "It was the unanimous view of the Tribunal that this great tragedy could and should have been prevented, and the responsibility fell fairly and squarely on the great public body, the National Coal Board." 

However, the NCB refused to acknowledge their role in the tragedy and pay for the remaining colliery tips above the town to be removed; that money had to be taken out of the Aberfan Disaster Fund. According to the BBC, the NCB also first offered only £50 to each parent of a child lost in the landslide, "before raising it to the 'generous offer' of £500."

Queen Elizabeth II allegedly considers her delayed visit her greatest regret.

Prince Philip visited Aberfan on the day after the tragedy. Her brother-in-law Lord Snowdon, who was of Welsh heritage, headed there early that next morning as well. But the queen decided to delay her own appearance there, despite advice to the contrary. In Elizabeth the Queen, royal biographer Sally Bechdel Smith claims this was because she feared her presence would be a distraction to the rescue efforts. "Perhaps they'll miss some poor child that might have been found under the wreckage," she allegedly said.

As depicted on The Crown, Queen Elizabeth II arrived at Aberfan on October 29, 1966 to tour the site and speak with victim's families. Though The Crown paints Elizabeth's reaction as somewhat callous, with Prime Minister Harold Wilson chastising her for the choice to wait, the queen does look duly rattled in photos of her visit with the grieving villagers (on the show, Olivia Colman's queen claims to have faked it).

RONALD DUMONTGETTY IMAGES

Members of her inner circle at the time have said the queen does regret not visiting sooner. "I think she felt in hindsight that she might have gone there a little earlier," Sir William Heseltine, who worked in the royal press office at the time, said in the documentary Elizabeth: Our Queen, according to Town & Country. "It was a sort of lesson for us that you need to show sympathy and to be there on the spot, which I think people craved from her."

Per an account published by the South Wales Echo in 2002, Lord Charteris, the Queen's former private secretary, allegedly confided to British author and broadcaster Gyles Brandreth on the matter: "In a diary Brandreth has compiled to mark the Queen's Golden Jubilee year, he recalls a conversation he had with Lord Charteris 10 years ago, asking him if the Queen felt she had ever put a foot wrong - he immediately replied: 'Aberfan.'"

DES WILLIE

Marjorie Collins, whose 9-year-old son Wayne died in his classroom, told ITV that "people were very pleased that she came here." Queen Elizabeth II has gone back to Aberfan four times since. 

Many fans of The Crown say they'd never heard of the Aberfan disaster before.

Despite the horrific scope of the tragedy—and the NCB's despicable lack of response in its wake—the Aberfan disaster is a lesser-known story outside the U.K. Yet those who did know what happened are glad it was shared on The Crown. According to The Guardian, the production team used people who lived in Aberfan at the time, as well as relatives of the deceased, as extras in certain scenes. In an effort to respect their trauma, they were offered counseling by the makers of the show.

                    Aberfan Today 

"We had a therapist to help all the people who were recreating such a horrific scene," producer Oona O' Beirn told The Guardian.“People who live there are still traumatized, of course, and we found they’d never been offered help before. Now we are trying to arrange more.”

The Aberfan disaster was the catastrophic collapse of a colliery spoil tip in Wales on 21 October 1966. The tip had been created on a mountain slope above the village of Aberfan, near Merthyr Tydfil, and overlaid a natural spring. A period of heavy rain led to a build-up of water within the tip which caused it to suddenly slide downhill as a slurry, killing 116 children and 28 adults as it engulfed Pantglas Junior School and other buildings. The tip was the responsibility of the National Coal Board (NCB), and the subsequent inquiry placed the blame for the disaster on the organisation and nine named employees.

Aberfan disaster

Aberfan in the days immediately after the disaster, showing the extent of the spoil slip

It was one of the worst industrial disasters Britain has ever seen.

The picture of this clock was unearthed by Western Mail photographer Godfrey Harris years after the disasterCredit: Western Mail/Godfrey Harris/PA Archive

It was the last day of term. 240 children and nine teachers were waiting for their first lesson to begin when a landslide of mud and debris flooded into the classroom.

Phillip Thomas was a ten-year-old pupil at the school and one of the only few to survive the tragedy. 

Philip Thomas was one of only three schoolchildren to survive in one class of 32 at Pantglas Junior School.

We didn’t know what hit us that day. It’s still hard to believe what did come down. Aberfan should never be forgot.

Philip Thomas, Survivor

Although Thomas survived, he was left needing hospital treatment for years to treat a variety of serious injuries.

Makeshift mortuaries were opened in local chapels where fathers came to identify their children.

Another survivor was eight year old Jeff Edwards. 

He said that the events of this tragic day had affected him all his life.

What we've all experienced are classic symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. There's no doubt it has affected me on a daily basis. I still have nightmares and sometimes suffer from deep bouts of depression.

Jeff Edwards, Survivor

Bodies were recovered from the rubble in the days after the disaster by emergency services, rescue teams, tip workers and local residents.

Makeshift mortuaries were opened in local chapels where fathers came to identify their children.

The villagers of Aberfan held a mass funeral six days after the disaster.

A memorial garden was created to honour the victims of the disaster

A tribunal into the Aberfan disaster found that The National Coal Board ignored repeated warnings that the coal slurry would not be able to withstand a period of heavy rain during the winter, and was very likely to be a danger to the school.

They found that the National Coal Board were to blame for the disaster and the counsel admitted, “It need not have happened and should not have happened if proper site investigations had been carried out beforehand.”

Pantglas School has now been turned into a memorial garden to honour those who lost their lives in the Aberfan disaster.

The British King whose love quest was greater than that of His Country.

Miss Simpson with formerly  H.M King Edward VIII

Asirifi Highlights the King’s quest for love over his Kingdom 
‘The King’s abdication paved way for a new dynasty of an Elizabethan Age which stood the test of shocks that nearly destroyed the Monarchy .Today ,the British Monarch remains one of the most powerful world figures.The Queen’s family had to quickly abandon their very private ‘we four’family to wear the Shoes of Monarchy which remained one of the very difficult transitions they encountered but today the transition from King Edward to the New King George and lastly to their Neice and Daughter is one they will stand proud to see .
The Queen has carried her duties in the best possible way to promote continuity and the best of the English people .But for  the Queen Her, Country comes first before family a very known task and promise kept for years” -Mark Ofosu Asirifi

 

Edward VIII became king of the United Kingdom following the death of his father, George V, but ruled for less than a year. He abdicated the throne in order to marry his lover, Wallis Simpson, thereafter taking the title Duke of Windsor.

Who Was Edward VIII?

Edward VIII was a popular member of the British royal family and heir to the throne. In 1931, then known as the Prince of Wales, Edward met and fell in love with American socialite Wallis Simpson. After George V's death, the prince became King Edward VIII. However, because his marriage to Simpson, an American divorcée, was forbidden, Edward abdicated the throne after ruling for less than a year. Thereafter, he took the title Duke of Windsor and embarked on a jet-setting life with his new wife.

Early Life

Edward VIII, who ruled the United Kingdom from January to December 1936, was born on June 23, 1894, in Richmond, London, England. The eldest son of George V, Edward studied at Osborne Naval College, the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth and the University of Oxford's Magdalen College.

In 1911, after his father's ascension, Edward became the Prince of Wales. He joined the Royal Navy and then, following the start of World War I, enlisted in the army. His assignments to safe positions on the Italian front troubled him, causing him to announce, "What difference does it make if I am killed? The king has three other sons!"

Upon his return to England, the young Prince Edward took up his official duties, and traveled throughout Britain and other parts of the world. Dashing and charming, he became known in the American press as the "arbiter of men's fashions, a fearless horseman, tireless dancer, idol of bachelors, dream of spinsters."

The Duke of Windsor formally H.M King Edward with his Mother  Queen Mary 

Involvement with Wallis Simpson

Prince Edward met the woman who would completely change his life in June 1931. At a party hosted by Lady Furness, the prince was introduced to Wallis Simpson, a sophisticated, charming and charismatic American woman who had recently moved to London with her husband. She immediately captured the king's interest and later captured his heart. By 1934, the two had undoubtedly become lovers. The monarchy was not pleased with the pairing, however, and refused to allow a marriage between the future king and an American divorcee.

The Duke of Windsor and Wallis Simpson

Photo: Getty Images

Abdication of Throne and Marriage

In 1936, the prince succeeded his father, George V, becoming King Edward VIII. He was a popular king, although those who worked around him found him irresponsible in regard to his official papers. On December 11, 1936, he abdicated the throne in the face of opposition to his proposed marriage to Simpson, proclaiming to the public, "I have found it impossible to carry the heavy burden of responsibility and to discharge my duties as king as I would wish to do without the help and support of the woman I love." Edward was then given the title of Duke of Windsor, and in 1937, he married Simpson in a small private ceremony in France.

Bahama Appointment

The couple lived in Paris, and spent most of their time shopping and partying with the international jet set. The duke made a couple of attempts to revive his political career, including a trip to Nazi Germany in October 1937, which only served to worsen his reputation as a supporter of Adolf Hitler. While taking refuge from Nazi forces in Lisbon in 1940, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor received word that the King had appointed the duke to be Governor and Commander of Chief of the Bahama Islands.

Although the post was considered a relatively unimportant job for a member of the royal family, the duke and duchess were pleased. The London Daily Express eventually said of the former king's five-year post in the Bahamas, "He has faithfully upheld the British cause in his lonely outpost & shown wisdom in his decisions and great dignity in his bearing."

He and Simpson then returned to Paris, France, where Edward, Duke of Windsor, died on May 28, 1972. He was buried at Windsor Castle, and 14 years later, Simpson was buried beside him. Their undying romance in the face of opposition is still regarded today as one of the greatest love stories of our time.

Why Edward VIII Abdicated the Throne to Marry Wallis Simpson

The British king insisted he could not undertake his responsibilities without the divorcée as his wife, though evidence also suggests he was not fully invested in serving as monarch.

Photo: Getty Images

On December 11, 1936, King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom addressed his subjects via a radio announcement that attempted to explain why he was becoming the first British monarch to abdicate the throne. Noting that he had served out his royal duties and that he now declared his allegiance to his younger brother and soon-to-be King George VI, Edward attempted to explain why he was becoming the first British monarch to abdicate the throne.

"You must believe me when I tell you that I have found it impossible to carry the heavy burden of responsibility and to discharge my duties as king as I would wish to do without the help and support of the woman I love," he stated, referring to the religious and cultural obstacles in the way of his marrying his twice-divorced American lover, Wallis Simpson.

He left the country a few hours later, ending a 325-day reign that brought the storied British monarchy to a crossroads. Although a constitutional crisis was avoided, and the ex-king was now free to marry as he wanted, the ordeal guaranteed that the names of Edward and Wallis would be forever linked in infamy.

Edward VIII giving his abdication broadcast to the nation on December 11, 1936.

Photo: The Print Collector/Getty Images

Edward enjoyed life as a prince but dreaded becoming king

Born in 1894 as the oldest son of George, Duke of York, Edward became heir to the throne when his father was crowned King George V in May 1910 and was formally invested as Prince of Wales the following summer.

As a young man, Edward emerged as one of the most popular members of the royal family. He had served in the Great War, albeit off the front lines, and took extensive tours of the Commonwealth on behalf of the Crown. He also embodied the persona of a handsome, charismatic prince, and enjoyed the social and sexual spoils of his charmed existence.

Behind the scenes, however, aides questioned whether the prince had the focus and drive to rise to the responsibilities of being king. Edward also privately expressed dread at the thought, as he knew he was cut from a different cloth than his traditionalist father. He took to spending more time at Fort Belvedere, a country house southeast of London, where he could while away the hours in his garden and entertain friends from high society.

He was smitten with Simpson's independence and wit

The prince met Simpson at the house of friends in early 1931. A few years removed from her divorce from U.S. Navy pilot Earl Winfield Spencer, she had resettled in London with her second husband, maritime broker Ernest Simpson.

By his own account, the first meeting between the future lovebirds was wholly unremarkable: Hampered by a cold, Edward wrote in his memoir, "she was not feeling or looking her best," and their "stilted" conversation turned to the dreaded topic of the weather.

However, their social circles brought them together again, and by the time Simpson was presented to the court later that year, the prince found himself "struck by the grace of her carriage and the dignity of her movements," adding, "I looked upon her as the most independent woman I had ever met, and presently the hope formed that one day I might be able to share my life with her."

Indeed, while Simpson wasn't considered a standard beauty, she had a quick wit and an undeniable magnetism, and Edward became obsessed with this worldly woman who was unafraid to challenge his whims. On her end, here was the dashing Prince of Wales, the most eligible bachelor in the world, making her the center of his royal attention and Simpson was swept up in the romantic intrigue.

By 1934, after the prince's regular mistress departed on an extended trip, Edward began foregoing the usual airs of secrecy regarding their relationship. They vacationed together that summer, without her husband, and the following year Wallis began accompanying the prince to royal events.

George V and Queen Mary were not happy with the presence of "that woman," as Simpson was derisively known, but virtually everyone connected to the prince seemed to believe that his infatuation with the American would eventually pass, not grasping that he was determined to make her his wife.

The Duchess and Duke of Windsor pick flowers on the grounds of their home, la Moulin de la Tuilerie, in the commune of Gif-sur-Yvette, outside of Paris, France, 1955.

Photo: Frank Scherschel/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Edward insisted on the marriage despite the advice of his prime minister

With the death of George V on January 20, 1936, the call to duty arrived for Edward. He immediately broke with tradition by watching the proclamation of his own accession, with Simpson by his side, and soon became the first British monarch to fly in a plane when he traveled to London for his Accession Council.

As feared by royal aides, Edward showed little interest in any sort of day-to-day governorship. He was mainly preoccupied with marrying Simpson, and from her husband, at least, there was no pushback, as the businessman agreed to let the king have his way.

Convincing the Church of England and the rest of the government was another story. The Church would not marry a divorcée with a living ex-husband — let alone two — and while the king could seek a civil ceremony, the act would place him at odds with his standing as head of the Church.

Around the time Simpson was granted a preliminary divorce in October 1936, Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin finally confronted Edward about the severity of the situation. Over several meetings, he expressed his belief that the Edward-Wallis marriage would not be supported by the government or the British people and explained why Parliament, as representative of the people, could determine who was suitable to be queen.

Edward proposed a morganatic marriage, in which Simpson would not receive a royal title, but this was rejected. So, too, was Edward's request to make his case to his subjects by way of a radio address.

With no path for compromise, Edward informed Baldwin on December 5 that he would abdicate. A bill was introduced in the House of Commons on December 10, and two days later the Declaration of Abdication Act went into effect, formally freeing the former king of the "heavy burden" he spoke of.

On June 3, 1937, Edward and Simpson were married at the Château de Candé in France's Loire Valley, by the one royal chaplain who agreed to perform the service.

Edward and Simpson lived with the repercussions of his decision

Now known as the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Edward and Simpson spent much of their remaining years in France, at odds with the British royal family. They were shipped off to serve as governor and first lady of the Bahamas through World War II, narrowly avoiding capture by Nazi agents.

With George VI enduring a bout of poor health in the late 1940s, royal insiders reportedly hatched a plan to have Edward reinstalled as regent over the young heir, George's daughter Elizabeth, should the king fail to recover. However, Edward again showed little drive to reclaim the throne, and the moment passed. He attended the funerals for his brother in 1952 and his mother in 1953, but was relegated to watching the June 1953 coronation of Queen Elizabeth on television, and waited 12 more years until earning an invite to another royal ceremony.

Along with harboring resentment toward her husband's family, Simpson was said to have focused her ire on Edward, the man who took her away from her happy London life and rendered her an object of scorn. But they remained together and lived out their lives as lesser celebrities until Edward passed away in 1972. Simpson followed in 1986 and was interred next to her husband at the Royal Burial Grounds adjoining Windsor Castle.

Duchess of Windsor 

Wallis, along with Edward, was soon suspected of being a Nazi sympathizer—not a far jump, since the couple visited Germany and met with Hitler in 1937. Intelligence files at the time also suspected Wallis of carrying on an affair with at least one high-ranking Nazi. The couple fled their French home to Spain, where they were hosted by a pro-German banker, then to the Bahamas, where Edward was sent to perform the duties of governor.

Wallis worked with the Red Cross and devoted time to charitable causes while in the Bahamas. However, her private papers revealed a deep disdain for the country and its people, and the couple’s Nazi connections continued to come to light. The couple returned to France after the war and lived socially; their relationship may have deteriorated over the years. Wallis Simpson published her memoirs in 1956, reportedly editing and rewriting her own history to portray herself in a more flattering light.

Later Life and Death 

The Duke of Windsor died of cancer in 1972, and Wallis reportedly had a breakdown at his funeral. By this time, she was suffering from dementia and other health problems, and her lawyer, Suzanne Blum, took advantage of Wallis’s state to enrich herself and her friends. By 1980, Wallis’s health had declined to the point where she could no longer speak.

On April 24, 1986, Wallis Simpson died in Paris. Her funeral was attended by several members of the royal family, and much of her estate was, surprisingly, left to charity. Her legacy remains a complicated one—an ambitious and glamorous woman whose great romance led to great losses.

Ultimately the duke got his way, which was to wed the woman who charmed her way into his life in the early 1930s, but the question remains: Was his abdication truly an act of love, as he claimed? Or did he insist on a forbidden marriage because he knew it was the one way out of the kingdom he never wanted?

The public can ponder the evidence, left behind in memoirs and letters, but the final answer, it seems, lies with two of the more infamous occupants of the Royal Burial Ground. 

Weeks before the Duke of Windsor’s death ,The Queen,Prince Philip and Prince of Wales visited the Windsor’s in their French residence after the Duke fell ill for sometime.

Prince Charles used to send the Duke letters as they communicated frequently via mail .

The Queen who is a Neice to King Edward who became Duke of Windsor after abdication leads the royal family in the funeral service of her late uncle who abdicated the throne and made Her father  King 

Captured is the Duke and Duchess of Windsor 

The Queen Elizabeth II with Mrs Simpson and the Queen Mother at the Duke of Windsor’s Funeral .