Among Sierra Leoneans, Beccles Davies and Arthur Williamson O'Dwyer had started business in Calabar, after their retirement from the colonial service in Southern Nigeria. Beccles Davies was a produce merchant. O'Dwyer opened his stores on the Marina in Duke Town, where he sold dress materials, assorted fancy and fashion goods and stocked hardware, glass and chinaware. The third Sierra Leonean was a tailor named Claudius Benjamin Jones, who headed the tailoring department of Hope Waddell Institute. Claudius later started as a general merchant in 1900 and sold clothing, shoes, provisions, and stationery (Macmillan, 1968, p. 188).  
Arthur Williamson O'Dwyer's glass store on Marina Road earned him the admiration of an Austrian glassware maker and he was employed as its principal agent. He was also the first patent medicine dealer in Calabar and became the first commissioned agent and auctioneer handling the disposal of all property that was 'axed' in Calabar. By 1919, his business had expanded greatly and was partly managed by his son, Gage Hall O'Dwyer, who would go on to become the founder and first president of the African Chamber of Commerce, established in 1941 as a counterpoise to the European Association of African Merchants (Udoka, 1991, p. 306). Similarly, Claudius B. Jones, in addition to his Hawkins Street store, owned other properties - including the land on present-day Egerton Street where the Vicon Pharmacy now stands - and became a well-established figure in real estate investment. Jones was also a newspaper vendor who helped to keep people in Calabar abreast of developments in other parts of the world. As to Beccles Davies, he was a major exporter of African produce who contributed tremendously to the economic development of Calabar. ${ }^{3}$