Founded in 1836 by Mrs. Harriet Wrigley, the wife of the 2nd Methodist Missionary to the Gold Coast, Wesley Girls’ High School began with 25 girls and aimed to provide them with basic training in housekeeping and Catechism, as well as education in writing, reading, sewing, and religious studies. Classes were initially held at the Manse, in the Standfast Hall near the Victoria Park in Cape Coast.
However, Mrs. Wrigley passed away just five months after the school’s founding. It wasn’t until 1837 that Mrs. Elizabeth Waldron assumed leadership and ran the school for 43 years, laying a solid foundation for what would later become the Wesleyan Girls’ School and Training Home. Students at the school quickly became known for their values of fortitude, integrity, and truthfulness.
The school’s high academic standards led the Methodist church to provide funding for higher education for girls, and in 1884, Rev. W.M. Cannell started the Secondary section of the school with 20 girls while serving as the Headmaster of Mfantsipim School. However, funding shortages led to intermittent closures of the school’s primary and secondary sections, and at one point, it had to team up with Mfantsipim as a co-educational Secondary School under a new name, the Collegiate School.
By 1900, the school was independent again, with Mrs. H.J. Ellis serving as Headmistress. Sister Evelyn Bellamy, a deaconess, then headed the school from 1914 to 1943 and made significant contributions to its constructive work and able leadership. During her tenure, Dr. Kwegyri Aggrey famously stated that “to educate a boy is to educate an individual, but to educate a girl is to educate a family” when he visited the school on June 8, 1925.
In 1951, the Secondary School section was permanently separated from the primary when Miss Olive Compton moved it to its current location at Kakumdo. Miss Compton conceptualized the school as H.M.S. Excellence and had the school designed to reflect this. The High School continued to excel, while the primary section struggled to regain its former glory.
Today, Wesley Girls’ High School remains one of the best girls’ schools in Ghana, known for its academic excellence and all-around outstanding performance.
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NOTABLE ALUMNI OF WESLEY GIRLS’ HIGH SCHOOL
- Jemila Abdulai, blogger, writer, and digital marketer
- Barbara Frances Ackah-Yensu, active justice of the Supreme Court of Ghana (2022–)
- Rosamond Asiamah Nkansah, 1st police woman in Ghana
- Betty Acquah, feminist painter
- Adina, musician
- Sophia Ophilia Adjeibea Adinyira, justice of the Supreme Court of Ghana (2006 – 2019)
- Dedo Difie Agyarko-Kusi, Ghana Ambassador to South Korea (2017–2021)
- Agnes Aggrey-Orleans, Ghanaian diplomat
- Zanetor Agyeman-Rawlings, member of parliament for Klottey Korle Constituency
- Mabel Agyemang, Chief Justice of the Turks and Caicos Islands, first female Chief Justice of The Gambia (2013-2014)
- Ama Ata Aidoo, award-winning author, academic, former Minister of Education
- Sophia Akuffo, 13th Chief Justice of Ghana
- Patience Akyianu, banker; managing director of Barclays Bank Ghana
- Akosua Addai Amoo, Sports journalist
- Grace Amponsah-Ababio, a retired diplomat
- Abena Osei Asare, member of parliament for Atiwa East
- Gladys Asmah, former Minister of Fisheries
- Becca, musician
- Sylvia Boye, former Chief Executive and first female Registrar of West Africa Examinations Council
- Mary Chinery-Hesse, former civil servant and first female director of International Labor Organization, United Nations
- Melody Millicent Danquah, first female pilot in Africa
- Mercy Yvonne Debrah-Karikari, first female to be Secretary to the Cabinet
- Rita Akosua Dickson, Vice Chancellor of KNUST
- Florence Dolphyne, first female Professor and first female Pro-vice Chancellor, University of Ghana, Legon
- Efua Dorkenoo, activist
- Brigitte Dzogbenuku, Vice Presidential candidate for the Progressive People’s Party
- Constance Edjeani-Afenu, first female brigadier general of the Ghana Armed Forces, Deputy Military Adviser to Ghana’s permanent Mission in New York
- Mary Grant, Ghana’s first female council of state member; first alumna to be a medical doctor
- Afua Adwo Jectey Hesse, chief executive officer of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital
- Lovelace Johnson, active Justice of the Supreme Court of Ghana (2019–)
- Jennifer Koranteng, model and fashion designer
- Eva Lokko, engineer and former managing director of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation
- Alima Mahama, lawyer and former Minister for the affairs of women and children in Ghana
- Joy Henrietta Mensa-Bonsu, a law professor and member of the United Nations Independent Panel On Peace Operations; active Justice of the Supreme Court of Ghana (2020–)
- Akosua Menu, deputy CEO of National Youth Authority
- Joyce Bawah Mogtari, Lawyer and Former Deputy Minister of Transport
- Emma Morrison, television personality and media professional
- Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang, first female Vice-Chancellor of a state University in Ghana
- Peace Ayisi Otchere, first female director of the African Development Bank
- Rose Constance Owusu, former justice of the Supreme Court of Ghana (2008 – 2014)
- Deborah Owusu-Bonsu, musician, television presenter and model
- Martha Akyaa Pobee, Diplomat, Permanent Member to the United Nations,
- Lucy Quist, first Ghanaian woman to become the CEO of a multinational telecommunications company in Ghana
- Mabel Simpson, fashion designer
- Hanna Tetteh, former Minister for Trade and Industry and former Minister for Foreign Affairs
- Gertrude Torkornoo, active Justice of the Supreme Court of Ghana (2019–)
- Yvonne Tsikata, international economist and first Ghanaian woman to become vice president at the World Bank
- Julia Osei Tutu, wife of Asantehene, Otumfuo Nana Osei Tutu II
- Georgina Theodora Wood, former police prosecution officer, first female Chief Justice of Ghana
- Nana Oye Mansa Yeboaa, first female deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana, and former Ghanaian diplomat
- Vida Yeboah, minister of state in the Rawlings government, former Headmistress of Mfanstiman Girls’ Secondary School
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