Christian Cole

Christian Frederick Cole (1852 – 1885) was a Sierra Leone Creole lawyer and the first black African barrister to practise in the English courts. Originally from the Sierra Leone Colony and Protectorate, he was the first black graduate of the University of Oxford, where he studied as a non-collegiate student and then at University College.

Life Cole was the grandson of a slave, Prior to his studies at Oxford he was educated at Fourah Bay College in Freetown, Sierra Leone. He still took a very visible role in the life of the college,

On leaving Oxford in 1880, he returned to Sierra Leone, but did not find employment, so returned to England to train as a barrister.

Written works Cole delivered lectures on education in Freetown, which were published in 1880. One was "What Do Men Say about Negroes?", a response to F. E. Weatherly's book Oxford Days, priced 3d and dedicated to Edward Blyden. The other contained his thoughts on the Anglo-Zulu war and was titled Reflections on the Zulu War, By a Negro, BA., of University College, Oxford, and the Inner Temple.

In 2006, a copy of this pamphlet, which includes two poems, was put up for sale. Former students and staff of University College donated more than a thousand pounds to buy it for the college's library.