Emmanuel Alexander Erskine (19 January 1935 – 7 May 2021) was a Ghanaian military officer and politician. He was a Chief of Army Staff of the

Ghana Army The Ghana Army is the principal land warfare force of Ghana. In 1959, two years after the Gold Coast (British colony), Gold Coast became independent from the British Empire, the Ghana Regiment, Gold Coast Regiment was withdrawn from the Royal West ...

. He was also a commander of the

United Nations Truce Supervision Organization The United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO) is an organization founded on 29 May 1948 for peacekeeping in the Middle East. Established amidst the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, its primary task was initially to provide the military com ...

(UNTSO) and the

United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (; ), or UNIFIL (; ) is a United Nations peacekeeping mission established on 19 March 1978 by United Nations Security Council Resolutions United Nations Security Council Resolution 425, 425 and Unit ...

(UNIFIL).

Early life and education

Emmanuel Erskine was born on 19 January 1935. He trained in various military institutions in the United Kingdom. He had telecommunications training at the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst in England, completing in 1960. He was also at the

Staff College, Camberley Staff College, Camberley, Surrey, was a staff college for the British Army and the presidency armies of British India (later merged to form the Indian Army). It had its origins in the Royal Military College, High Wycombe, founded in 1799, which ...

in 1968 and trained at the

Royal College of Defence Studies The Royal College of Defence Studies (RCDS) instructs the most promising senior officers of the British Armed Forces, His Majesty's Diplomatic Service and Civil Service in national defence and international security matters at the highest leve ...

in 1968 and 1972.

Military career

Ghana Army

Erskine was commissioned at the

Royal Military Academy Sandhurst The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (RMAS or RMA Sandhurst), commonly known simply as Sandhurst, is one of several military academy, military academies of the United Kingdom and is the British Army's initial Commissioned officer, officer train ...

in December 1960 into the Signal Corps of the Ghana Army. He served in various capacities with the Ghana Army. He was Commanding Officer of the Ghana Signals Regiment and later Director of Communications with the Ghana Ministry of Defence. He later became Director for Operations and Planning at the same Ministry from 1971 to 1972. He was the Chief of Army Staff briefly between January and February 1972. He again held the same position from February 1973 to April 1974.

United Nations peacekeeping

Erskine served as the Chief of Staff and Deputy Force Commander of the Second United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF II) from 1974 to 1976 in

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

. He was then appointed the Chief of Staff of the

(UNTSO) in Israel between January 1976 and April 1978. He subsequently became the first commander of the

(UNIFIL) between 1978 and 1981. Erskine again occupied the position of Chief of Staff of UNTSO and was also the

United Nations Secretary General The secretary-general of the United Nations (UNSG or UNSECGEN) is the chief administrative officer of the United Nations and head of the United Nations Secretariat, one of the six principal organs of the United Nations. The role of the secr ...

's Representative for Matters relating to UN Peacekeeping Operations in the

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

from February 1981 to May 1986.

Political career

Erskine was one of the founding members of the

People's Heritage Party The People's Heritage Party (PHP) was a political party in Ghana. Formation The PHP was one of the eight political parties formed when the ban on party politics was lifted in 1992 in Ghana. It claimed to follow the Nkrumahist philosophy. Electi ...

(PHP). He was the party's presidential candidate during the

1992 Ghanaian presidential election Presidential elections were held in Ghana on 3 November 1992. They were the first contested elections held in the country since 1979, and only the fourth contested elections of any sort since the country gained independence in 1957. Jerry Rawli ...

. He came fifth with 1.7% of the vote. The PHP later merged with the National Independence Party to form the

People's Convention Party The People's Convention Party is a former political party in Ghana. It merged with the National Convention Party in 1996 and became the reformed Convention People's Party The Convention People's Party (CPP) is a socialist political party in ...

(PCP) in 1993.

National Reconciliation Commission

Erskine was one of the nine members of the National Reconciliation Commission which were appointed by the

President of Ghana The president of the Republic of Ghana is the elected head of state and head of government of Ghana, as well as commander-in-chief of the Ghana Armed Forces. The current president of Ghana is John Mahama, who won the 2024 presidential elect ...

John Kufuor John Kofi Agyekum Kufuor (born 8 December 1938) is a Ghanaian politician who served as the tenth president of Ghana from 2001 to 2009. He was the fifth chairperson of the African Union from 2007 to 2008 and his victory over John Atta Mills at t ...

in consultation with the Council of State of Ghana. The commission was to investigate human rights abuses committed during the five military regimes which have ruled Ghana.

General Emmanuel Erskine Research and Documentation Centre

The Centre for Peace Initiatives in Africa (CPIA) is a peace organization based in

Harare Harare ( ), formerly Salisbury, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Zimbabwe. The city proper has an area of , a population of 1,849,600 as of the 2022 Zimbabwe census, 2022 census and an estimated 2,487,209 people in its metrop ...

, Zimbabwe. It was established in February 2001 and had Erskine as the chairman of the board of trustees. The CPIA has the General Emmanuel Erskine Research and Documentation Centre (GERDC) named in his honor and was officially opened in September 2001 by him. The GERDC also launched the General Emmanuel Erskine Annual Lecture Series. The inaugural lecture was delivered by Erskine.

Other activities

Erskine was the Chairman of the Opportunities Industrialization Centre Ghana Accra Local Programme Committee. He had been a member of the Pugwash council since 1992 and was a participant at the 50th Pugwash conference which deliberated on "Eliminating the Causes of War". He served as the Chairman of the Ghana Action Network on Small Arms (GANSA) in 2002.

Death

Erskine died on 7 May 2021.

Publications

* * * * *

References

External links

National Reconciliation Commission Report

General Emmanuel Erskine Research and Documentation Centre
, - , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Erskine, Emmanuel Alexander Ghanaian soldiers United Nations military personnel Graduates of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst People's Heritage Party politicians 1935 births Chiefs of Army Staff (Ghana) Candidates for President of Ghana 2021 deaths People from Kumasi Ghana National College alumni Graduates of the Royal College of Defence Studies