Henry Alexander Elias
| Henri Alexander Elias | |
|---|---|
| Governor of the Dutch Gold Coast | |
|
In office 7 December 1864 – 4 May 1865 |
|
| Preceded by | Hendrik Doyer |
| Succeeded by | Arend Magnin |
|
In office 18 October 1862 – 12 March 1864 |
|
| Preceded by | Cornelis Nagtglas |
| Succeeded by | Carel Hendrik David van Hien |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
March 21, 1829 Batavia, Dutch East Indies |
| Died | February 26, 1903 (aged 73) The Hague, Netherlands |
| Spouse(s) | Jeannette Jacqueline Struycken Boudier |
Henri Alexander Elias (21 March 1829 – 26 February 1903) was a Dutch colonial administrator, who served as governor of the Dutch Gold Coast.
Henri Alexander Elias was born in Batavia, Dutch East Indies to Burchard Joan Elias, a civil servant in the colonial government of the Dutch East Indies who later became governor of the Dutch West Indies, and Cornelia Dorothea Adelheid Scholten van Aschat, a housemaid originally from Amsterdam. Both his parents stem from prominent Dutch patrician families.
Shortly after his mother died on 30 April 1836, Henri Alexander moved from the Dutch East Indies to the Netherlands, together with his father and his brother Burchard. Both Henri Alexander and his brother Burchard were enrolled at the private boarding school of Simon van Moock in Delft. One year later, the Ashanti princes Kwasi Boakye and Kwame Poku joined Henri Alexander and Burchard at this boarding school. The 1839 census of Delft indeed lists Henri Alexander, his brother Burchard, Kwasi Boakye and Kwame Poku as four of in total seventeen pupils resident at Oude Delft 480, where the boarding school was located.
Both Henri Alexander and his brother Burchard studied for some time at the University of Bonn, where they were members of the Corps Borussia Bonn student corps. By royal decree of 23 January 1862, Elias was appointed governor of the Dutch Gold Coast, with the titular rank of lieutenant colonel. He arrived in Elima in October 1862. In 1864, he was on leave in Europe for most of the year. After returning to the Gold Coast on 7 December 1864, he left for the Netherlands again on 11 May 1865. Elias was honourably discharged.
After his return to Europe, he negotiated the Anglo-Dutch Gold Coast Treaty of 1867 together with his predecessor Cornelis Nagtglas, in which the United Kingdom and the Netherlands agreed on an interchange of territory on the Gold Coast, so as to create more coherent areas of influence.
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