Michael David Irving Gass

Sir Michael David Irving Gass, CMG (1960), KCMG (1969), was born in 1916. During the Second World War he served in East Africa and Burma with the Gold Coast Regiment of the Royal West African Frontier Force (1939-1945); he was twice mentioned in despatches.

Gass entered the Colonial Administrative Service in 1939. He was posted to the Gold Coast where he held the positions of Assistant District Commissioner, District Commissioner (1945), Administrative Officer, class II (1951), Administrative Officer, class I (1953), Assistant Regional Officer in Ashanti (1953), and Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of the Interior (1956-1958).

Between 1958 and 1965 Gas served as Chief Secretary to the Western Pacific High Commission; for periods during the years 1959, 1961, 1963 and 1964 he was also acting High Commissioner for the Western Pacific.

In 1965 he was appointed as Colonial Secretary in Hong Kong (1965-1969) where he also served as acting Governor for periods in 1966, 1967, and 1968. Gass was appointed High Commissioner for the Western Pacific and British High Commissioner for the New Hebrides in 1969 (-1973).

When he returned to England, Gass served as a Member of Somerset County Council (1977-1981). He died in 1983.

From the guide to the Report by Michael D.I. Gass on the first elections to the Legislative Assembly of the Gold Coast, 1951, (The Bodleian Library of Commonwealth and African Studies at Rhodes House)