Viscount Milner

The Right Honourable The Viscount Milner KG GCB GCMG PC
Governor of the Cape Colony and High Commissioner for Southern Africa
In office 5 May 1897 – 6 March 1901
Monarch	Queen Victoria Edward VII
Prime Minister	John Gordon Sprigg William Philip Schreiner John Gordon Sprigg
Preceded by	Sir William Howley Goodenough
Succeeded by	Sir Walter Francis Hely-Hutchinson
Administrator of the Transvaal and the Orange River Colony
In office 4 January 1901 – 23 June 1902
Monarch	Queen Victoria Edward VII
Lieutenant	Hamilton John Goold-Adams
Preceded by	Office Established Christiaan de Wet As State President of the Orange Free State (31 May 1902) Schalk Willem Burger As President of the South African Republic (31 May 1902)
Succeeded by	Himself As Governor of the Transvaal and Orange River Colony
1st Governor of the Transvaal and Orange River Colony
In office 23 June 1902 – 1 April 1905
Monarch	Edward VII
Preceded by	Himself as Administrator the Transvaal and Orange River Colony
Succeeded by	The Earl of Selborne
Secretary of State for War
In office 18 April 1918 – 10 January 1919
Monarch	George V
Prime Minister	David Lloyd George
Preceded by	The Earl of Derby
Succeeded by	Winston Churchill
Secretary of State for the Colonies
In office 10 January 1919 – 13 February 1921
Monarch	George V
Prime Minister	David Lloyd George
Preceded by	Walter Long
Succeeded by	Winston Churchill
Personal details
Born	Alfred Milner 23 March 1854 Gießen Grand Duchy of Hesse
Died	13 May 1925(1925-05-13) (aged 71) Great Wigsell, East Sussex  United Kingdom
Resting place	Saint Marys the Virgin Church, Salehurst, East Sussex, UK
Nationality	British
Political party	Conservative
Spouse(s)	Violet Milner
Alma mater	University of Tübingen King's College London Balliol College, Oxford
Occupation	Colonial administrator, politician
Religion	Christian

Alfred Milner, 1st Viscount Milner, KG, GCB, GCMG, PC (23 March 1854 – 13 May 1925) was a British statesman and colonial administrator who played an influential leadership role in the formulation of foreign and domestic policy between the mid-1890s and early 1920s. He was the key imperial official in using poor diplomacy that helped cause the Second Boer War of 1899–1902. Historian Bill Nasson says:

While serving as High Commissioner, he mentored a gathering of young members of the South African Civil Service, informally known as Milner's Kindergarten several of whom became important figures in administering the British Empire. From December 1916 to November 1918, he was one of the most important members of David Lloyd George's War Cabinet.

An influential public servant for three decades, Milner was a visionary exponent of imperial unity at a time when imperialism was beginning to be called into question. His reputation exceeded his achievements: Office and honours were heaped upon him despite his lack of identification with either major political party.

Milner's German ancestry dates to his paternal grandmother, married to an Englishman who settled in the Grand Duchy of Hesse (modern state of Hesse in west-central Germany). Their son, Charles Milner, who was educated in Hesse and England, established himself as a physician with a practice in London and later became Reader in English at Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen in the Kingdom of Württemberg (modern state of Baden-Württemberg). His wife was a daughter of Major General John Ready, former Lieutenant Governor of Prince Edward Island and later the Isle of Man. Their only son, Alfred Milner, was born in the Hessian town of Giessen and educated first at Tübingen, then at King's College School and, from 1872 to 1876, as a scholar of Balliol College, Oxford, studying under the classicist theologian Benjamin Jowett. Having won the Hertford, Craven, Eldon and Derby scholarships, he graduated in 1877 with a first class in classics and was elected to a fellowship at New College, leaving, however, for London in 1879. At Oxford he formed a close friendship with young economic historian Arnold Toynbee, writing a paper in support of his theories of social work and, in 1895, twelve years after his death at the age of 30, penning a tribute, Arnold Toynbee: a Reminiscence.

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