Major Seth Anthony, the first African to gain a King's Commission, 1944 (c)

Photograph, World War Two, Far East (1941-1945), 1944 (c).

Anthony (1915-2008) was from the Gold Coast (now Ghana) and already an officer cadet in the local forces when he enlisted in the Gold Coast Regiment of the Royal West African Frontier Force in 1939. Initially involved in the training of recruits, in 1941 he was sent for officer training at Sandhurst, being commissioned as second lieutenant in 1942. He later served in Burma with the 81st West African Division.

Anthony ended the war with the rank of major, having been mentioned in dispatches on several occasions. Appointed a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) of the Military Division, he later worked as an Assistant District Officer in the years prior to the Gold Coast's independence. He later served as Ghana's first permanent representative at the United Nations in New York.

From an album of 28 photographs relating to West African troops in Burma, World War Two.