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It is generally held that the shooting on 28 February 1948 at Christiansborg
crossroads in the Gold Coast led inexorably to a sharp acceleration of the colony's
journey to independence and thereafter to the hasty decolonisation of Africa.
Whether or not the same afternoon's rioting and looting in Accra's commercial
centre, which spread to other towns, was caused by the act of the author, then
Superintendent of Police in Accra, or started quite independently, remains an open
question. Certainly the Commission of Enquiry which was appointed in
consequence of the widespread violence recommended sweeping constitutional
changes. At the same time it completely exonerated Colin Imray from blame for
having fired on what had started as an approved ex-servicemen's procession but had
turned into an unruly mob diverted from its route and heading for Government
House. In spite of this finding, a book on the end of empire in Africa has
simplistically and most unfairly blamed Colin Imray for having panicked. Lest
historians without access to the Commission's report repeat this line a rebuttal was
called for and this forms the most important part of the present book. The author
shows how the Gold Coast Government's failure to appreciate the seriousness of the
several strands of post-war discontent and the unpreparedness of almost everyone in
authority for a serious outbreak of violence, especially one occurring on a Saturday
afternoon, placed him in a horrendous position with a dispersed field operation
whose communications were largely dependent on a few motorcyclists. He narrates
the consequences in detail. It is right that posterity should have a first-hand account
of events.
This story and its aftermath are part of a second instalment of the author's
memoirs after his move from the Palestine Police to service in West and East
Africa. His years in the Gold Coast (1935-48) included postings to every region, a
spell on transfer to the Administrative Service and command of the Police Training
School. In Kenya (1948-56) a posting to Nyeri at a time when the oath-taking that
was to lead to Man Man was just starting, was followed by command of the police
in Coast Province where his problems included cattle raiding and ivory poaching.
The last chapter tells of visits to Lamu island before the provision of an airstrip
made it a goal of day-trippers and contains a fascinating description of some of the
strange people who had been lured by its isolation and old Arab charm to hole up
there.
Imray's anecdotes, some of which seem unconcluded, are interspersed with
vignettes of his superiors, his colleauges and others with whom his service brought
him into contact, including two legendary characters from World War I,
von Lettow-Vorbeck and Meinertzhagen. With most of these he got on well but
there were some who did not earn his respect including his chief at the critical point
of his career.
Extra entertainment for the reader is provided in the form of speculation about
the murder of Lord Erroll about which Imray had heard much from the Chief Justice
in Accra who had led the unsuccessful prosecution of Sir Delves Broughton.
Gripped by the mystery of what had happened in 1941 the author was enabled by
his posting to Kenya to meet several of the people who had been members of the
"Happy Valley" set or had been otherwise involved in the case. After concluding
that the shortcomings of the police investigation had made a conviction almost
impossible, he provides an imaginative reconstmction of the affair which, albeit
falling somewhat short of his description of it as the Murder of the Century, was
intriguing enough to generate a considerable literature.
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