25/09/2022
THE SECOND GHANAIAN TO QUALIFY AS MEDICAL DOCTOR!
Dr. Ernest James Kwame Anamuah Hayford (1858-1913) was the second Gold Coaster to qualify as medical doctor after Dr. B. W. Quartey-Papafio of Accra.
Ernest was also a politician, clergyman, headmaster and a lawyer. He was not only the eldest of the Hayford brothers of Gold Coast, but arguably the most brilliant amongst them.
Unfortunately he died in London two months after being called to the bar in 1913.
Ernest James Hayford was born on 23 April 1858 at Anomabo. In line with Fante tradition, he was given his Fante name, Kwame Anamuah (which is now anglicized as Anaman).
The name Hayford itself is an Anglicization of Fante name Effuah, which means “Fog”.
Ernest`s father was Rev Joseph de Graft Hayford, a royal from Cape Coast. His mother was Mary Ewuraba Brew of Anomabo Anona family (Samuel Collins Brew and Adjua Esson) with roots to Eno Baissie, the paramount chief of Anomabo and Richard Brew, the famous Irish business man and slave trader in Gold Coast (See Priestley, 1969; Shumway, 2014; and Sparks 2014).
Ernest was the first child of his parents and his other famous siblings were Dr James Mark Hayford (founder of Gold Coast Baptist Church, member of ARPS and a nationalist), Joseph Ephraim Casely Hayford (lawyer, journalist, nationalist, and founder/cofounder of ARPS and Nationl Council for the British West Africa), Hester Hayford; Helen Mary Hayford; and Sydney Spencer Hayford.
His other brothers on his father`s side were Rev. Josiah Hayford, Isaac Hayford and Ibinijah Hayford.
Ernest Hayford started his basic education at Anomabo Methodist basic school and later Cape Coast.
After completion, he was sent to Wesleyan high School at Freetown, Sierra Leone in 1877. In preparation for Clergyman in the Methodist Church.
On his return home, he became an assistant missionary to Rev James Picot and head teacher at the Wesleyan Methodist church and school in Elmina.
Dr Hayford upon taken charge of Elmina Church showed himself a powerful preacher, making many converts in the Elmina-Eguafo circuits, and substantially raising the status of the church there.
It was here that he met his first wife, Christiana Vroom of Elmina and got married to her in 1882.
After his marriage, Hayford asked for transfer to Cape Coast where he was made the Headmaster of Cape Coast Government Boys School in 1882.
Whilst a headmaster, he began to fraternize with his Freemason friends who were resident medical practitioners.
From these friends he took systematic private medical studies, and after two years he mastered at least the principles of physiology and anatomy.
Thus, in 1884, he left Gold Coast for England where he entered St Thomas Hospital, as a medical student. After four years of study he graduated as a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons, a Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians. He specialized as gynaecologist at the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin.
After qualifying as a medical doctor in 1888, Ernest returned to Cape Coast where he set up lucrative private clinic.
At the time of his return the only indigenous Gold Coast medical doctor was Dr. B. W. Quartey-Papafio, and other Sierra Leonean and Nigerian medical doctors such as Dr Easmon, Dr Oguntola Sapara and others.
It was only after 1905 before Dr. Frederick V. Nanka-Bruce, the best dressed man (he always wore expensive coats, and had flower tied to his coat button hole) in Gold Coast also became a medical doctor.
After ten years of practice, Ernest Hayford went back to Europe where he obtained the degree of Doctor of Medicine from the University of Brussels.
He returned home to commence his practice again, and was involved in medical outreach programmes at Cape Coast, Anomabo and its neighbouring villages. But he became very popular and his reputation soaring high during the “Yellow Fever” epidemic of 1910.
The disease which first broke out in Sekondi, and spread across the country, was so dangerous that it threatened to cripple the socio-economic activities of the country.
The epidemic snatched the lives of Rev A T R Barthrop (Chairman and general Superintendent of the Wesleyan church) and his colleague, Rev J H Bridge, and many other African and Europeans in Gold Coast.
Dr Hayford disagree with the European and proved them that they had misdiagnosed the disease leading to mistreatment and the deaths thereof.
Dr Hayford later set up large practices at Cape Coast, Elmina, Shama, Sekondi and Axim, and was also successful in applying native drugs where custom demanded.
His pursuits did not end there, he also entered into Timber industry as a shareholder with Mr Seth Gregory; and was engaged in gold mining, cocoa trade, palm oil and the palm kernel industries with much success.
As a foundation member of the Gold Coast Aborigines Right Protection Society (ARPS) when it was formed in 1897, he rose to become an Executive member.
He was involved in the anti-imperialist activities and against the obnoxious Land Bill of 1894. Like his brother Casely Hayford, he was against the exploitation of the Gold Coast lands by the foreign oligopolies, and advocated for natives to be granted the right to exploit their own natural resources.
Dr Hayford returned to England to pursue law. He enrolled as a student of the Honourable Society of Lincoln`s Inn.
In two years he passed his Final Law Examination and remained in pupillage for one year. He was called to the bar in June 1913.
But as he prepared to travel to Gold Coast, he was attacked by fever and died in London on 6 August 1913, two months after being called to the bar.
Dr Ernest Hayford married five times in his life. He was not a polygamist, but just like his junior brother, Casely Hayford who also married nine women at different times, he was a complex man.
His first marriage was to Christina Vroom and had a son Joseph Kow Hayford.
His second wife Mrs Grace Hayford, they had no issue.
The third wife was Pitsiana Lou. The children of this conjugal union were Ernest James Hayford, Jnr., Robert Hayford, Frederick Kwesi Sen Hayford and Ernestina Hayford.
His fourth wife was Mrs Ewurakua (Enkua) Hayford and they had a daughter, Elizabert Hayford who was born in 1908, and became the wife of the famous Gold Coast educationist, James Topp Nelson Yankah.
Elizabert and Topp Yankah`s children were Ebo Yankah; John Kofi Yankah; Nana Yankah; Paa Kwesi Yankah; Kojo Yankah (panyin) and Kojo Yankah (kakraba).
Ernest`s fifth and last wife was Afro-Dutch woman from Elmina, Anna Vitringa Coulon (1855-1912), daughter of Julius Vitringa Coulon and Maria Hoogen. They had kids, Emma Hayford who was born in 1889, and married Johannes Welsing of Elmina, with whom they had Ernest James Hayford-Welsing; Clara Ernestina "Awura Adjoa" Welsing; Ama Hayford; and Johannes Cramer Welsing. John Alan Kwadwo Kyeremanten, the Minister of Trade`s mother is likely to come from this family? The rest of Dr Ernest and Vitinga Coulon`s children were Lucy Hayford; Christina Hayford and Effie Hayford
Sources:
Isaac S Ephson. Gallery of Gold Coast Celebrities, 1632-1958. Vol. 1. Ilen Publications, 1971.
Margaret Priestley. "West African trade and coast society (A family study)." (1969).
Randy J. Sparks. Where the Negroes are Masters. Harvard University Press, 2014.
Rebecca Shumway. The Fante and the transatlantic slave trade. Vol. 52. Boydell & Brewer, 2014.
I rep Cape Coast ♥️
