Among the military men who escorted the cortege of Queen Elizabeth II on its last journey from Westminster Abbey to the St. George’s Chapel was a Ghanaian-born British soldier, Lieutenant Colonel Nana Kofi Twumasi-Ankrah.
He was the only Black person in the group of over a dozen officers who marched along with the cortege on September 19, 2022 after the official funeral had been held.
A former United Kingdom High Commissioner to Ghana, Jon Benjamin, was full of praise for Twumasi-Ankrah, who has been a Personal Assistant of the late monarch – as her equerry.
“Proud to see Her Late Majesty’s equerry, Nana Kofi Twumasi-Ankrah, accompanying her coffin in today’s #statefuneral,” the diplomat tweeted on Monday.
In 2017, then Major Twumasi-Ankrah was named by Queen Elizabeth II as her equerry, becoming the first black man to hold this position.
The position is for a three-year period. Hence, at Windsor Castle on 27 November 2020, Twumasi-Ankrah was received by the Queen, who invested him with the MVO upon relinquishing his appointment as Equerry.
An equerry’s duty primarily is that, at official activities, including public visits and receptions at Buckingham Palace, he assists the monarch.
