Background
ANKRAH, Joseph was born on August 18, 1915 in Accra. Son of Samuel P. K. Ankrah and Beatrice A. Quavnor.
ANKRAH, Joseph was born on August 18, 1915 in Accra. Son of Samuel P. K. Ankrah and Beatrice A. Quavnor.
Ankrah began his schooling in 1921 at the Wesleyan Methodist School in Accra, where his nickname was 'Ankrah Patapaa' for his "forcefulness in arguments and always playing leadership role among his mates". In 1932, he entered Accra Academy, one of the leading secondary schools in Ghana, where he established himself as a good football player. He obtained the Senior Cambridge School Certificate in 1937.He then joined the Ghana Civil Service.
On the outbreak of World War II, Ankrah was mobilized into the Royal West African Frontier Force . While his Brigade was in East Africa in 1940, he was transferred to the Record Office in Accra with the rank of Warrant Officer Class II and made second-in-command. In October 1946, he went to the Marshfield Officer Cadets Training Unit in the United Kingdom and graduated in February 1947 as the first African officer in the Gold Coast Army. He was commissioned a lieutenant in 1947 and became the first African camp commandant at the Army Headquarters. He was later made the first Ghanaian Chief Instructor of the Education Unit. He was promoted Major in 1956 and became the first African to command an all-African company, the Charlie Company of the first Battalion at Tamale, Ghana. He later became Lieutenant Colonel and took over the whole battalion.He rose to rank of colonel by 1960, at a time when there were few Ghanaian officers at that level. During the United Nations Operation in the Congo, he was the Brigade Commander of the force based at Luluaburg, Kasai in present-day Democratic Republic of Congo.
After his experience in the Congo, he was rapidly promoted Brigadier then Major General becoming the first Ghanaian commander of the Ghana army in 1961 and then Deputy Chief of Defence Staff. He was dismissed from the Ghana army in July 1965 on suspicion of involvement in a coup plot.
Ankrah became the head of the National Investment Bank after leaving the army. He however became the Head of state and Chairman of the National Liberation Council after the 24 February 1966 coup. In January 1967, he mediated between the warring factions of the Nigerian civil war in Biafra. He was forced to resign as Chairman of the NLC and Head of State over a bribery scandal involving a Nigerian businessman
Married 1st Elizabeth Oyoe in 1939, 2nd Felicia Kailey in 1953, 3rd Mildred C. Akosua in 1962.