Sir Michael David Irving Gass, CMG (1960), KCMG (1969), was born in 1916. During the Second World War he served in East Africa and Burma with the Gold Coast Regiment of the Royal West African Frontier Force (1939-1945); he was twice mentioned in despatches.

Gass entered the Colonial Administrative Service in 1939. He was posted to the Gold Coast where he held the positions of Assistant District Commissioner, District Commissioner (1945), Administrative Officer, class II (1951), Administrative Officer, class I (1953), Assistant Regional Officer in Ashanti (1953), and Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of the Interior (1956-1958).

Between 1958 and 1965 Gas served as Chief Secretary to the Western Pacific High Commission; for periods during the years 1959, 1961, 1963 and 1964 he was also acting High Commissioner for the Western Pacific.

In 1965 he was appointed as Colonial Secretary in Hong Kong (1965-1969) where he also served as acting Governor for periods in 1966, 1967, and 1968. Gass was appointed High Commissioner for the Western Pacific and British High Commissioner for the New Hebrides in 1969 (-1973).

When he returned to England, Gass served as a Member of Somerset County Council (1977-1981). He died in 1983.

Report on the first elections to the Legislative Assembly of the Gold Coast, with Appendices B-M, 1951.

Bodleian reader's ticket required.

No reproduction or publication of personal papers without permission. Contact the library in the first instance.

The library holds a card index of all manuscript collections in its reading room.

Listed as no. 1246 in Manuscript Collections in Rhodes House Library Oxford, Accessions 1978-1994 (Oxford, Bodleian Library, 1996).

Gass | Michael David I | b 1916 | Sir | Colonial Administrator

Great Britain | Colonial Administrative Service

Colonial administrators | Ghana

Elections | Ghana

Ghana | Politics and government