George Maclean (1801-1847) was a Scottish solider and agent of British imperial expansion. As an administrator of the British-owned Gold Coast forts, he was instrumental in extending British influence in the interior of present-day Ghana.

Born on Feb. 24, 1801, George Maclean spent his early years primarily in idleness and aimlessness. Eventually he obtained a military commission and was gazetted to the Royal African Corps, considered at the time to be a most undesirable billet. His first assignment was to Freetown, Sierra Leone, where he arrived in 1826. The ensuing 2 years were spent in Freetown and the Gold Coast (now Ghana), where he began to reveal his potential as a leader. But illness in 1828 forced him to return to England.

In the same year conditions in the Gold Coast had led the British government to withdraw from the area. British merchants on the coast strongly opposed this decision, and an agreement...