Geoffrey Bing, Attorney-General on Republic Day

July 1, 2008 (Page 29)

GEOFFREY Henry Cecil Bing, a British, was Ghana’s Attorney-General from September 9, 1957 to September 9, 1961.
He was popularly known as one of the the most “sinister” advisors of Ghana’s First President, Dr Kwame Nkrumah and was said to have devoted his time to ensuring that Dr Nkrumah remained in power.
On the backbenches, Bing was, according to his Time magazine obituary the unrestrained leader of a small group of radicals, never fully trusted by their colleagues and known as "Bing Boys".
Mr Bing was a close friend of Dr Nkrumah leading to his appointment as Ghana's Attorney-General. He was said to have defended Dr Nkrumah’s decision to deport two Ashanti Moslem leaders on the grounds that their presence was "not conducive to the public good." When the Moslems sued to claim their citizens' rights in court, Mr Bing argued that Ghana's Parliament had "absolute and complete power to legislate on any subject whatever," and no court may review any act not specifically forbidden by the Constitution. (He was referring to a Bill that was passed to sanction the expulsion of the two Moslems).
He was arrested and maltreated when Dr Nkrumah was overthrown in 1966, before being sent home some months later. His memoir of Nkrumah's Ghana, Reap the Whirlwind, was published in 1968.
Born on July 24, 1909 at Craigavad near Belfast, Mr Bing was a British barrister and politician who served as the Labour Member of Parliament for Hornchurch from 1945 to 1955.
Bing was educated at Tonbridge School before going on to Lincoln College, Oxford, where he read history.
Always a radical and a member of the socialist left, Mr Bing was active in the Haldane Society and the National Council for Civil Liberties. During the Spanish Civil War, he joined the International Brigades as a journalist and was also known to be an early anti-Nazi. He was also known to have supported Communist China and took a keen interest in Northern Ireland.
During World War II, he served in the Royal Signals, attaining the rank of major. A 1943 experiment with parachutes at the GSO2 Airborne Forces Development Centre left him disfigured and he bore the scars for many years.
At the 1945 general election, Bing stood for Labour in Hornchurch, winning the seat. He was re-elected in 1950 and 1951, serving until 1955.
He died on April 24, 1977.