Finally, Guggisberg laid out plans to extend the railways further north of Kumase to northern Ghana. However, mainly because of financial limitations, this project could not be executed before he left the country, nor has it been take in hand since his administration. He also introduced the tarring of some roads.

Other major accomplishments for which Guggisberg is remembered were the establishment of the Achimota College and the building of the Korle Bu Hospital, both in Accra. Before Sir Gordon's time, formal education was run mainly by the Christian churches, with little government participation to the missionaries.

Upon assuming office, the Governor outlined and attempted to implement what became known as the Guggisberg's Fifteen Principles of Education which included the reduction of the size of classes, the introduction of co-education, the expansion of facilities for training adequate number of teachers, more emphasis in the school system on the teaching of local history and culture and of character training. In addition to Achimota College, Guggisberg opened four trade schools to provide technical and vocational education; one at Asuansi, near Cape Coast, one at Kyebi in the Eastern Province, a third at Mampon in Asante, and the fourth in the North, first in Yendi and later transferred to Tamale, the provincial capital.

Long before him the churches were, for instance, promoting some technical and vocational education, and had pioneered the development and teaching of vernacular and culture in the Christian schools. Guggisberg's provision for regular inspection of schools and his insistence on a minimum monthly salary of £5 for teachers, including those in mission schools, in the abstract, were new ventures and quite laudable.

But these measures resulted in the closure of many mission schools, as the churches did not have financial resources, and the government did not give them adequate grants-in-aid to meet the new requirements. If Guggisberg had accepted that the mission education institutions were, like Achimota, equally serving towards progress of the country, and had granted to institutions like Mfantsipim, St. Nicholas Grammar School (now Adisadel College) and the Akropon Training College, even half the amount of money he spent on the government college, he would have fully deserved the tribute often paid to him as a promoter of education in Ghana.

Before Guggisberg, the few hospitals in the country were located in the bigger towns having substantial European populations. Indeed, some of these were built exclusively for European patients, and right up to the eve of Ghana's independence were referred to as 'European Hospitals'. Guggisberg extended the medical service to other areas to cater for the indigenous population, but his greatest achievement in the medical service was the Korle Bu Hospital, whose first phase he completed in 1923. The hospital was to be extended into a medical school, but this plan was implemented only after the country's independence.

Korle Bu became the 'general' and model hospital for the entire nation, to which very serious cases needing skilled, specialist treatment were referred. It brought so much relief to the sick that for many years the people expressed their appreciation in this improvised song in Ga:

Korle Bu, Korle Bu, Korle Bu, Oyiwala donn

meaning, 'Korle Bu, Korle Bu, Korle Bu, how grateful I am to you!'

Despite the above observations, there is no doubt that Guggisberg's eight years administration from 1919 to 1927 was the most revolutionary in the development of the country in the colonial days. True to the proverbial sense of gratitude of the people, two memorials were erected by the chiefs, expressing in a concrete form the debt which Ghana owed to Sir Frederick Gordon Guggisberg: an assembly hall at Dodowa, near Accra, where the Joint-Provincial Council of Chiefs met, and a headstone in marble on the Governor's grave at Bexhill in England.

The growth of Nationalism and the end of Colonial Rule

As the country developed economically, the focus of government power gradually shifted from the hands of the Governor and his officials into those of Ghanaians. The changes resulted from the gradual development of a strong spirit of nationalism and were to result eventually in independence. The development of national consciousness accelerated quickly after World War II, when, in addition to ex-servicemen, a substantial group of urban African workers and traders emerged to lend mass support to the aspirations of a small educated minority. Once the movement had begun, events moved rapidly but not always fast enough to satisfy the nationalist leaders, but still at a pace that surprised not only the colonial government but many of the more conservative African elements as well.
Data as of November 1994