Col Eddie Hammond (arrowed) with family and friends on his 80th birthday.

Reflections: Col Eddie Hammond @ 80, Hurray!

Razak El-Alawa Opinion Feb - 27 - 2016 , 09:58

I had not heard of Col Eddie Hammond since 1975 – that is more than 40 years ago – when I left Accra on transfer to Tamale as the Regional Editor of the Daily Graphic for the Northern and Upper regions.

At that time, Col Hammond was the Chairman of the Accra City Council and therefore, Mayor of Accra and was also the Chairman of the Ghana Boxing Authority (GBA).

I got to know him through my late brother, Omar El-Alawa, who was then the City Engineer for Accra. Both of them lived at a place called City Corner at Ridge, near the Geological Survey Department and not far from the old Ambassador Hotel.

At the time, I was living with my brother and I used to meet Col Hammond who took interest in me as a young journalist. It was from City Corner that I moved to Tamale in 1975.

From then onwards, I lost contact with the good old colonel. With so many coups after I returned to Accra late in 1978 and my own movements that saw me relocate to Nigeria in 1984, I lost touch with many old friends.

I was visiting Ghana regularly while in Nigeria till I finally returned in 1996. When I tried to gather the pieces, it was not easy to re-establish contact with all old friends. To make matters worse my brother, Omar, passed on in February 2001 and it was not easy to meet some of his old friends after the funeral.

Re-establishing contact

Then suddenly about three weeks ago I was discussing my recent piece on Muhammad Ali (Cassius Clay) with Doreen Hammond, the Features Editor of the Daily Graphic, who handles my page, and she surprised me with her knowledge of boxing.

She told me that her father used to be the Chairman of GBA, hence her interest in boxing and that all along, she had not come out to tell me how close her father was with my late brother. She told me how she used to come to our residence to visit my late brother’s wife, Auntie Priscilla, also deceased. I was shocked and asked her about her father.

It was then she told me Col Hammond was still alive and living at Nungua. I took his number from Doreen and called him when I got home. He was equally surprised to learn I was in the country and we discussed so many interesting things.

Sule Raji

He even asked me about Sule Raji who was his schoolmate at Sekondi Anglican School. Col Hammond told me the last time he saw Sule was when he lost his wife, Auntie Alice, in July 1997 and Sule came to Nungua to console him during the funeral.

Sule, for the information of my readers who may not know, spent almost his entire working life in Ghana with the Daily Graphic, even though for a brief period after the February 1966 coup, he was asked by the National Liberation Council (NLC) government to go and edit the Ashanti Pioneer in Kumasi on secondment.

He was a top class journalist and while at Graphic, he was in charge of special projects and edited the Ghana Year Book. Sule was also a one-time General Secretary of the Muslim Representatives Council.

Col Hammond was disappointed when I told him Sule died in July 1999 in Accra after he was rushed from Nigeria where he had taken ill. He asked about the wife, Fatima, and I told him, she and all the children were in Canada. I even mentioned that one of the children was married to my daughter, Rihanat, who is also in Canada.

The conversation was on phone, but I told him I would find time to visit him at Nungua.

When I met Doreen last week, she told me how excited her father was to hear from me. It was then she told me Colonel would be 80 last Monday and the children would be organising a special breakfast for a few friends that day to mark the occasion.

I told Doreen I would be there and indeed I was at Nungua before 8a.m, having left Gbawe at 5:30 am.

Col Hammond was really happy to see me and he hugged me for some time. He even tried to lift me up, saying as he said throughout breakfast that he was his good old self.

Surely the good old solider was his old self, still looking strong and good at 80.

One could not be surprised since Col Hammond took interest in boxing early in life and even represented the Western Region during the final elimination bout to select the Gold Coast boxing contingent to the Empire Games in 1954 in Vancouver, Canada, when he was only 18.

Unfortunately, he lost the final fight against Floyd Quartey and, therefore, could not go to Vancouver.

Almost everybody at the breakfast last Monday spoke Fante. Since I was sitting next to the Colonel, I asked him whether he was Fante or Ga. He shot back to say that he was a Ga from Osu, adding humourously that his parents only decided to deliver him in Sekondi in 1936.

Education

Col Hammond finished elementary school at Anglican Middle School in Sekondi in 1951 and went to work as a tally clerk with the Elder Dempster Lines at the Harbour between 1952 and 1953. He said he was making so much money, even earning more than his father but he was interested in continuing his education.

Between 1954 and 1958, he enrolled first at Odorgonno Secondary School and left for New Era and finally completed in 1958 at Accra Academy.

Col. Hammond gained admission to the Kumasi College of Technology (now KNUST) to write his “A” Levels. Fortunately, luck smiled on the young Hammond as he passed an earlier examination he had sat to join the military.

He was enlisted as a cadet in 1959 at the Regular Officers Special Training School at Teshie, a forerunner of the Military Academy, where he trained with other Cadets from Nigeria and Sierra Leone.

Training at Sandhurst Military Academy

It was a three-months course and at the end of the programme, he and the Brigadier Odartey – Wellington late were selected along with Nigerian cadets, Mobolaji Johnson, Abba Kyari and Benjamin Adekunle (the Black Scorpion), who were to play crucial roles in the Nigerian Civil War, to go to the prestigious Sandhurst Military Academy in Britain where he was commissioned a second Lieutenant in 1961.

While at Sandhurst, he won the all British University Welterweight title in boxing. As a result, he was flown to Rome to join the Ghana boxing contingent to the Olympic Games. Because he did not take part in the elimination bouts in Ghana, he could not participate in the games.

But he was able to meet the future World Heavyweight boxing champion, Cassius Clay (later Muhammad Ali and

Col. Hammond returned home to Ghana after his commission in 1961 and joined the 2nd Infantry Batallion under the command of Col. E. K. Kotoka.

During the Congo Crisis, Col. Hammond was sent to the Congo on three occasions between 1962 and 1965 and was stationed at Kamina and Luluabourg.

In 1965, he went on a course at the Junior Defence College and on completion, he was posted to the Military Academy as an instructor.

Following the 1966 coup, the Ghana Amed Forces was never the same again. Anything could happen to any officer as a result of the regular military interventions. After his stint with the Accra City Council,( now AMA) he went to the Staff College (Course 2) 1978 – 79.

During this time, Col. Hammond developed some eye problem and he left for the UK for treatment. He left a day before the June 4 uprising and had to remain in the UK for some time. When he returned during the Limann administration, he was posted to the Support Service as Commander.

Retirement on medical grounds

But before he could take up the appointment, he was asked to go for a review on his eye. It was at this time that the British doctors recommended that he should retire from the military on medical grounds in 1981.

However in 1989, he was appointed a civilian administrator at the Ghana Staff College, a position he held till 1999 when he finally retired after 40 years with the military.

Since then, Col. Hammond has made himself very busy with his membership of the New Testament Church (or Church of Christ) which he took interest in while in Britain. He does a lot of preaching and has been with the church since 1983.

But what has kept the old solider going is the support he receives from his six children, five females and a male, who have filled the void created by the death of his wife in 1997.

“They are all doing well and the unity they display is a source of joy to me”, he told me.