Benjamin Quartey-Papafio

Benjamin William Quarteyquaye Quartey-Papafio, (25 June 1859 – 14 September 1924) was a physician pioneer and politician on the Gold Coast - the first Ghanaian to obtain the medical degree (M.D) and the first to practise as an orthodox-trained physician.

Life Benjamin Quartey-Papafio was born into a leading Accra family: his parents were Akwashotse before shortly relocating to Edinburgh University. He graduated from Edinburgh with the degree M.B. and M.Ch. in 1886 and became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons.

His brother, Emmanuel William Kwate Quartey-Papafio (1857–1928) was an agriculturist and a trader.

Returning to the Gold Coast, he was a medical officer for the Gold Coast Government Service from 1888 until 1905, but was consistently denied promotion to the rank of Medical Officer.

Quartey-Papafio had three children by Hannah Maria Ekua Duncan, of a Cape Coast/Elmina family; on 8 October 1896 at St Bartholomew-the-Great Church in Smithfield, London, he married Eliza Sabina Meyer, daughter of Richard Meyer of Accra, and the couple had six children. A member of the Accra Town Council from 1909 to 1912, He was an unofficial member of the Legislative Council from 1919 to 1924. He was a practising Anglican.

Family Quartey-Papafio's son and five daughters were educated in Britain: Mercy (Ffoulkes-Crabbe), Ruby (Quartey-Papafio) and Grace (Nelson) became teachers in the Gold Coast. His son, Percy, trained as a doctor but was unable to practise due to failing eyesight caused by cataracts. Dr B. W. Quartey-Papafio, Nene Sir Emmanuel Mate Kole, KBE (Konor of Manya Krobo), Dr F. V. Nanka-Bruce, Hon. Sir Thomas Hutton-Mills, along with Nana Sir Ofori Atta (Omanhene of Akim Abuakwa), Nana Amonoo, F. J. P. Brown of Cape Coast, J. Ephraim Casely-Hayford of Sekondi were founded Achimota College. Dr Ruby was an economist and a Headmistress at Accra Girls High School. In addition to ghost-writing and being of assistance to the late Kwame Nkrumah and his cohorts/co-nationalists actualization of Ghana's independence, she was also appointed as the first Ghanaian headmistress at Cape Coast Government Girls School. After achieving the fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons, her only child Nana Ffoulkes Crabbe-Johnson followed in her footsteps, becoming the first Ghanaian Professor and Head of Department in Anaesthesiology (Lagos University Teaching Hospital) in a foreign medical institution and President of the West African College of Surgeons.