William Edward Maxwell

Sir William Edward Maxwell, KCMG was a British colonial official who served as Governor of the Gold Coast, then a British colony, from 7 April 1895 – 6 December 1897.

Born in 1846, William Edward Maxwell was the son of Peter Benson Maxwell, the Chief Justice of the Straits Settlements. He followed his father into the legal profession, and also served in the courts of the Straits Settlements. In 1889, he was appointed the Resident of Selangor. He became the Colonial Secretary of the Straits Settlements in 1892, and was acting governor from 30 August 1893 to 1 February 1894.

In 1895, Maxwell was promoted to the governorship of the Gold Coast (now Ghana). Under his governorship the British declared war on the Asante Empire, the fourth Anglo-Ashanti War, known as the "Second Ashanti Expedition" in 1895.

An earlier Treaty signed by the Asantes in 1874, but whose terms were widely considered as absurd and unenforcable, was invoked by Maxwell. When the Asante King, Asantehene Agyeman Prempeh, could not meet the terms, Maxwell had him arrested, together with his mother, father, brother, uncles and a dozen advisors.^[1] They were later exiled to the Seychelles, not returning to the Gold Coast (now Ghana) until the 1920s.

References

•  Carlyle, Edward Irving (1901). "Maxwell, William Edward". In Lee, Sidney. Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement​. 3. London: Smith, Elder & Co. p. 158.