father died when he was two years old, and one of his siblings died before reaching adulthood. Gardiner studied at St. Syprian Anglican School in Kumasi before attending Adisadel College in Cape Coast, where in 1934 he was Head Prefect. That year he won two school prizes for essays he had written. He also attended Fourah Bay College in Freetown, Sierra Leone, and the University of Cambridge's Selwyn College, graduating from the latter in 1941. Gardiner then studied at the University of London and Oxford University's New College. At the latter he worked under Margery Perham while examining constitutional development in the Gold Coast. During this time he became involved with the West African Students' Union and led its study group. In March 1942 he delivered a lecture titled West Africa and the War before the Royal Institute of International Affairs, discussing the relevance of World War II to the African continent. That year the Royal African Society appointed Gardiner to the International Institute of African Languages and Cultures. He also served on the Church of England's Anglo-African committee. He proceeded to the United States to tour American colleges; by March 1943 he had visited 30 institutions. On 24 July of that year he married Linda Charlotte Edwards, a Jamaican painter. They had two daughters, Charlotte and Roberta, and a son, George. Early career After completing his studies, Gardiner secured a position as an economics professor at Fourah Bay College and helped to establish its Department of Commercial and Social Studies. In late 1946 he assisted a British delegation at an international conference on education in Paris. Later that year he was hired by Ralph Bunche to work as an area specialist for the United Nations Trusteeship Council with a focus on West Africa in the Section of Territorial Research and Analysis. Bunche also placed him on the staff of the Special Palestine Commission. He served as an area specialist until 1948. In October 1949 he was made the first Director of Extramural Studies at University College in Ibadan, Nigeria, making him the only African department head at the institution. Under his tenure, the department employed experimental methods to promote and develop its programs, and by 1952 it was determined to be a success. He resigned on 30 September 1953. Gardiner subsequently joined the Gold Coast Civil Service as the Director of the Department of Social Welfare and Community, becoming