He was the grandson of Samuel Guggisberg, a cabinetmaker and farmer who had emigrated from Uetendorf in the Canton of Bern in Switzerland in 1832.

He was the eldest son born to merchant Frederick Guggisberg and his wife Dora Louisa Willson.

After moving to England in 1879, Guggisberg was educated at Burney's School, Portsmouth, and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich.

He was promoted to captain in 1900,[1] the year he published The Shop: The Story of the Royal Military Academy.

In 1914 he was appointed director of public works in the Gold Coast, but he rejoined the army upon the outbreak of the First World War.

[12] There he undertook work to develop and extend the railways, and created the deep-water harbour of Takoradi, superseding the use of surf-boats for handling traffic.

In 1923 he commissioned the construction of Accra's Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, the most modern institution of its kind in colonial Africa at the time.

"[13] In order to carry out that purpose he founded Achimota College for the training of native teachers and instructors.

He introduced drastic administrative reforms and devoted himself to the problems of maintaining and improving the system of drainage and irrigation upon which the sugar and rice cultivation of the colony depended.