Charles Harper

Sir Charles Harper KBE CMG (24 February 1876 – 13 May 1950) was a British civil servant. He was born in Barnstaple, Devon, England. He was educated at Blundell's School in Tiverton, and Exeter College, Oxford, and played rugby football for Oxford University and England. In 1900, Harper entered the Colonial Service as a Cadet in the Gold Coast Civil Service and was attached to the Ashanti Field Force. He left the Gold Coast in 1909 when he was called to the Bar of the Inner Temple; the following year he married Marjorie Ford. Harper returned to the Gold Coast and in May 1914 was appointed Acting Colonial Secretary in Accra. At the outbreak of World War I, he served as Senior Political Officer with the Togoland Field Force during the occupation of the former German colony, a post he held until December 1914. During 1916 he deputised for the Governor, Sir Hugh Clifford, during the latter's absence. The following year Harper proposed retiring from the Colonial Service in order to join the Army but the Colonial Office decided that he could not be released from his post in the Gold Coast.