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    Californian

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    1. The gentleman in the middle is my relative Brigadier-General Sir Frederick Gordon Guggisberg, KCMG, DSO, RE, governor and commander-in-chief of the Gold Coast from 1919 to 1926. In 1925 the Prince of Wales visited the Gold Coast and this photograph appears to be from that event. I own several similar photographs. Gordon was a native from Galt, Ontario, Canada, of Swiss ethnic background. He came to England around 1883/1884, spent his early years there in Southsea, near Portsmouth. He is a graduate of the Royal Military Academy of Woolwich, served in various places in the British Empire (Singapore, Nigeria and the Gold Coast), returned to England in 1914 to serve in the war. In 1919 he was appointed governor of the Gold Coast, in 1922 attained knighthood and in 1928 was appointed governor of British Guyana, a term he had to resign the following year due to ill health. He returned to England where he died in Bexhill-on-Sea on the 21st April 1930. Something else, being a kin, you mention some writing on the reverse side on the photograph, any chance that I can see it? I am fluent in German. Around 1927 Gordon traveled with his daughters by road from England to Switzerland to visit the place where the family had originated from (Guggisberg in Canton Bern). During that visit me met and connected with several persons from his distant family who would have been German speaking and the photograph your friend has might have come from them. Alternatively, the Basel Mission (Basler Mission), a Swiss missionary society was active in the Gold Coast at the time of Gordon's tenure as governor, the photo might have originated from one of their members.
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