James Emmanuel Kwegyir Aggrey-Orleans

James Emmanuel Kwegyir Aggrey-Orleans, (11 October 1937 – 19 November 2018) was a Ghanaian civil servant and diplomat who served as Ghana's High Commissioner to the United Kingdom and Ambassador of Ghana to the Republic of Ireland from October 1997 to March 2001.

Early life and education

James Emmanuel Kwegyir Aggrey-Orleans was born in Sekondi-Takoradi on 11 October 1937. Aggrey-Orleans had 5 other siblings. In 1970, he studied international relations at St Antony's College, Oxford and was a member of the college's Senior Common Room between 2001 and 2004.

Career

J. E. K. Aggrey-Orleans joined the administrative class of the Ghanaian Foreign and Diplomatic Service in 1963. Between 1966 and 1970, he was a foreign service officer and First Secretary at the Ghana Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York. He rose through the ranks to become the Chief of State Protocol at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, from 1975 to 1979. His responsibilities at the time involved training diplomats before they set off to their foreign duty posts. He was engaged as a consultant to the African Centre for Economic Transformation, the Parliament of Ghana and the Ghanaian Judiciary.

Personal life

He was married to Agnes Y. Aggrey-Orleans (née Bartels), a fellow diplomat. The couple had 2 sons, James E. K. and B. L. Kweku Aggrey-Orleans. He was a lifelong Methodist. He was an external patron of Club UK, a social organisation for Diaspora Ghanaians from the United Kingdom. Aggrey-Orleans was also a Freemason, belonging to the District Grand Lodge of Ghana of the United Grand Lodge of England. His contemporaries in the Masonic Lodge include diplomat, K. B. Asante and the jurist and judge, V.C.R.A.C Crabbe, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, the Asantehene, the Grand Patron of the Grand Lodge of Ghana; and former President of Ghana, John Agyekum Kufuor, the Senior Grand Warden of the United Grand Lodge of England.

Death and funeral

James Emmanuel Kwegyir Aggrey-Orleans died at dawn on 19 November 2018 at the age of 81. His funeral service was held at the Accra Ridge Church, after which his remains were buried at the Gethsemane Memorial Garden, Shiashie, also in Accra.

Works

Commonwealth Secretariat Report: Review of Relations between the Official and Unofficial Commonwealth (August 2001) (contrib.) Transition of the OAU to the African Union: Transition Capacity Building Needs and Interim Arrangement (2002) Conflict Resolution and African Diplomacy: Idealpolitik and Realpolitik. University of Ghana Alumni Lecture (2011)

Awards and honours

Officier de l’Ordre de Palmes Academiques, Alliance Française in Ghana (1984) Companion of the Order of the Volta (2006) Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree (LLD), University of Ghana (2013)