Ronald Edwards Wraith (born 1908, date of death unknown) was a British

scholar A scholar is a person who pursues academic and intellectual activities, particularly academics who apply their intellectualism into expertise in an area of study. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or research ...

on public and

colonial Colonial or The Colonial may refer to: * Colonial, of, relating to, or characteristic of a colony or colony (biology) Architecture * American colonial architecture * French Colonial * Spanish Colonial architecture Automobiles * Colonial (1920 a ...

administration. He was chairman of the

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Federal Electoral Commission in the late 1950s.George Bennett. Book Reviews: Race & Class, 1 1964; vol. 5: pp. 103 104. Wraith was head of the electoral commission that organized the registration and conduct of the 1959 parliamentary and regional elections.

Life

Wraith was born in

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; his father worked for the

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. He studied economics at

University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university located in Edgbaston, Birmingham, United Kingdom. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingha ...

. He spent two years in Australia and New Zealand before becoming the warden at a

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community center managed by the Tyneside Council of Social Services when the worst of the Great Depression was over. In 1938, he joined the Education Department of the Borough of Southampton as the Secretary of Youth Services and served in the position through World War II. In 1945, he was the head of the

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 mill ...

's department involved in colonial studies, also known as the Colonial Social Science Certificate Course that was previously headed by

Audrey Richards Audrey Isabel Richards, CBE, FRAI, FBA (8 July 1899 – 29 June 1984), was a pioneering British social anthropologist. She produced notable ethnographic studies. The most famous of which is ''Chisingu: A Girl's initiation ceremony among the B ...

. In 1946, he visited Africa and worked with the Housing and Social Services Department of Gold Coast. In 1947, he was placed in charge of another course, the Post War Devonshire Courses for colonial and West African administrators. Wraith later published a book on local government, comparing the West African and the English local government systems and expressing doubt about the transferability of the English model to West Africa. He was a researcher with the

University of Ibadan The University of Ibadan (UI) is a public research university in Ibadan, Nigeria. The university was founded in 1948 as University College Ibadan, one of many colleges within the University of London. It became an independent university in 1962 ...

before his appointment as the only expatriate in the Nigerian electoral commission. Wraith went on to write several books on corruption, local government and

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in developing countries. He was also a member of the research staff of the Institute of Local Government, Birmingham University.

Personal

Wraith married his wife, Jane in 1933. Both were members of the

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Works

*Administrative tribunals. Allen & Unwin. *East African citizen. Oxford University Press, 1960. *Local Administration in West Africa. Holmes & Meier, 1972. *Corruption in developing countries. Allen & Unwin, 1963. *Open Government: The British Interpretation.

References

Academics of the London School of Economics Year of death missing 1908 births {{UK-writer-stub