Essi Matilda Forster

Essi Matilda Forster (12 September 1922 – August 1998) was a Ghanaian lawyer and the first female native of the Gold Coast (now Ghana) to qualify as a lawyer.

Early life and education Forster was born to George James Christian, and Aba Lucy French, in Sekondi, the Gold Coast, on 12 September 1922. Forster's mother hailed from Shama in the Western Region of the then Gold Coast. She then became the first female Gold Coast native to become a lawyer, and the third woman in British West Africa to accomplish this feat. She was preceded by the Nigerian lawyer and first African woman to attain this feat, Stella Thomas, and Frances Claudia Wright, a Sierra Leonean lawyer who became the second woman in Africa to become a lawyer. She worked in this office for about six months. From 1957 to 1982 she was the legal counsel for Mobil Oil Ghana Limited.

Aside from legal practice, Forster engaged in other public and professional activities. She was a member of a number of committees and organizations, some of which she helped to establish. She was a founding member of the Ghana International School Committee, and served on the committee from 1954 to 1959. She also served on the Accra Magisterial District Prohibition Committee as a member, around the aforementioned period. She helped found the Accra branch of the Inner Wheel Club, and the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) in Ghana, serving as the association's president.

Personal life and death Forster married professor Edward Francis Bani Forster, the Gold Coast psychiatrist of Gambian descent, on 17 December 1944. They had three children; a daughter and two sons. She was a Christian and a congregant of the Accra Ridge Church, where she worked as the Sunday School secretary for about 17 years, from 1963 to 1980. Her hobbies included walking and volunteering. She died in August 1988 aged 75. At the time, she was the most experienced lawyer at the Ghana Bar. Her burial service took place at the Accra Ridge Church, on 14 August 1998.