Background
Napoleon Ashley-Lassen was born om March 29, 1934, in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, his family came from Denu in the Volta region of Ghana.
Napoleon Ashley-Lassen was born om March 29, 1934, in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, his family came from Denu in the Volta region of Ghana.
He was first sent to school in Nigeria, but finished his education at Angola Zion College.
He then joined the Royal West African Frontier Force injanuary 1955 as a private, but was quickly selected for officer training at Mons in Britain in October 1955, followed by Sandhurst in January 1956.
He was commissioned into the 1st Infantry Battalion at Takoradi, but when President Nkrumah established the Ghana Air Force in 1960, he was 159 sent to learn to fly at Temhill in Britain, where he won his wings, as did his contemporary Charles Beausoleil. They were among the first Ghanaian pilots. He was the first Ghanaian Commander of No. 2 Squadron operating twin Caribou transport aircraft, before becoming commanding officer of the Air Force Station, Accra, in January 1967.
Not actively involved in the first Ghanaian coup of February 1966, the National Liberation Council government made him Commander of the Air Force in April 1968, a post he held at the time of the January 1972 coup. At a Press conference in London, in May he said, “We stand by our promise to hand over power to a democratically elected government as soon as circumstances permit."
A mature soldier, widely respected and popular as Commander of the Air Force at the time of the coup, he was brought in to represent the interests of his own service. But he is recognised as one of the best officers at management and almost immediately he was promoted to Chief of the Defence Staff and the second most important member of the National Redemption Council. His thoughtful, rational approach and knack of dealing with men, resulted in three portfolios being heaped upon him, far too many for one man to handle. These were distributed in May to fellow commissioners leaving him with command of the armed forces.