Charles MacCarthy ( governor ) Brigadier - General Sir Charles MacCarthy KCMG ( 15 February 1764 – 21 January 1824 ) was an Irish - born soldier who served in the French , Dutch and British armies , and was a governor of various British territories in West Africa . He was born in Cork in Ireland , the son of the French émigré Jean Gabriel Guérault and his wife Charlotte Michelle ; he changed his name at an early age to MacCarthy , his mother ' s maiden name , on the advice of his uncle Thaddeus MacCarthy , a colonel in the Life Guards of Louis XV and later a captain in the 9th Regiment of Foot . He married Antoinette Carpot in 1812 , and had one son , Charles ; he would be adopted by his uncle , the Comte de Mervé after his father ' s death , and succeed to that title on his uncle ' s death as a naturalised French citizen . Military career . At the age of 21 , in 1785 , he joined the Irish Brigade of the French army , as a sub - lieutenant in the Régiment de Berwick ; by 1791 he had attained the rank of Captain , and was serving with the émigré royalist army under Louis Joseph de Bourbon , prince de Condé in Germany . He later served with the army of the Dutch Republic as a volunteer , in Damas ' Regiment , from 1793 to 1794 , and was wounded in the leg during an action outside Louvain on 15 July 1794 . He subsequently saw service in the Duc de Castries ' s Regiment of the émigré army , and when the Irish Brigade was reorganised in British pay in late 1794 , he was appointed an ensign in the Regiment of Le Comte de Conway ( the 6th Regiment of the Brigade ) , and saw service in the West Indies with the Regiment of Le Comte de Walsh - Serrant ( the 2nd Regiment ) from 1796 to 1798 . Returning from Honduras on the transport in June 1798 with the grenadier company of that regiment , he was wounded whilst in a day - long action fighting off a French privateer . The Irish Brigade was disbanded as a whole in late 1798 . He received his first British commission on 17 October 1799 , when he was appointed to command a company of the 11th West India Regiment , and transferred to a captaincy in the 52nd ( Oxfordshire ) Regiment of Foot on 15 March 1800 . He was appointed a Major in the New Brunswick Fencible Infantry ( later the 104th Foot ) on 14 April 1804 and remained with them until 1811 , when he received a Lieutenant - Colonelcy in the Royal African Corps . West African governor . In 1812 he was appointed the Governor of Senegal and Gorée . When these territories were returned to France by the Treaty of Paris he was appointed the Governor of Sierra Leone . As governor , he took a strong interest in the welfare of the colony , actively encouraging the building of housing and schools . He was a correspondent of William Wilberforce , and founded many settlements for liberated slaves . In addition , he arranged for the support and education of native children whose parents had been captured by slavers , in schools run by the Church Missionary Society . As a result of this involvement , he became a campaigner for the complete suppression of the slave trade - whilst slavery itself was abolished in the United Kingdom and its territories , the slave trade was still active in West African waters , using ships nominally flagged in countries which had not yet abolished it . He was knighted on 21 November 1820 , and on 19 July 1821 was promoted to the rank of Colonel with the temporary rank of Brigadier - General in West Africa . After the African Company of Merchants was abolished in 1821 , for its failure to suppress the slave trade efficiently , the Gold Coast was taken on as a crown colony , and placed under the government of Sierra Leone ; he became the governor of both . MacCarthy Island in the Gambia was named in his honour whilst governor . Ashanti War and the Battle of Nsamankow . In late 1823 , following the disagreements between the Fantis and the Ashantis , he declared war on the king of the Ashanti ; after organising the defences of Cape Coast , he set out with an expedition of some 80 men of the Royal African Colonial Corps , 170 men of the Cape Coast Militia , and 240 Fanti tribesmen under their local chiefs . He was accompanied by a captain and an ensign of the 2nd West India Regiment , as aides - de - camp , a surgeon of the same regiment , and J . T . Williams , his colonial secretary . This was not the only part of his force ; three other groups of infantry were in the region , one of 600 regulars of the RACC and 3 , 000 native levies , one of 100 regulars and militia and 2 , 000 levies ( under Major Alexander Gordon Laing ) , and a third of 300 regulars and militia and 6 , 000 levies . The plan was for the four groups to converge and then engage the enemy with overwhelming force . On the night of the 20th , still without having joined forces with the other three groups , his force camped by a tributary of the Pra River . The next day , at around 2pm , they encountered a large enemy force of around ten thousand men ; in the belief that the Ashanti army contained several disaffected groups whose chiefs were willing to defect , MacCarthy instructed the band to play the National Anthem loudly . The Ashanti responded by approaching closer , beating war drums , and his beliefs were swiftly dispelled . Fighting started shortly thereafter ; the two sides were separated by a stream , which the Ashanti made no major attempt to ford , both sides contenting themselves with staying firm and keeping up a continual musket fire . However , the British forces were lightly supplied ; the bearers bringing the supplies up in the rear , which included most of the gunpowder and ammunition , mostly fled after hearing the firing in the distance and encountering deserters straggling back . Only one additional barrel of powder and one of shot were brought up , and ammunition ran out around 4pm ; the Ashanti then made a determined attempt to cross the river , and quickly broke into the camp . Almost all the British force were killed immediately ; only around 20 managed to escape . MacCarthy , along with the ensign and his secretary , attempted to fall back ; he was wounded by gunfire , however , and killed by a second shot shortly thereafter . Ensign Wetherell was killed whilst trying to defend MacCarthy ' s body and Williams taken prisoner . On his return , he related that he had only survived through being recognised by an Ashanti chief for whom he had done a small favour , and was spared ; he was held prisoner for several months , locked in a hut which he shared with the severed heads of MacCarthy and Wetherell , kept as trophies of war . McCarthy ' s gold - rimmed skull was later used as a drinking - cup by the Ashanti rulers .