John Ebenezer Samuel, de Graft-Hayford (1912–2002) was Ghana's first Ghanaian Chief of the Air Staff. He became the first indigenous Air Force Commander in Ghana and Black Sub-Saharan Africa. He was also acting Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) for a brief period in 1962. He was a Ghanaian born in the United Kingdom. Apart from being of Ghanaian origin, he had Dutch and German maternal blood lines. Among a host of other earlier achievements he showed an excellence in sport, particularly the art of boxing. Born in the UK in 1912, he returned to Ghana with his parents and his newly born sister Mary in 1914, commencing formal education in 1916 at the Baptist School in Accra. Between 1916-1922, he studied at the Paedagogium in Godesberg,...
