The Right Honourable William Philip Schreiner CMG QC |
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8th Prime Minister of the Cape Colony | |
In office 13 October 1898 – 17 June 1900 |
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Monarch | Victoria |
Preceded by | John Gordon Sprigg |
Succeeded by | John Gordon Sprigg |
Personal details | |
Born | 30 August 1857 Wittebergen Mission Station, Cape Colony |
Died | 28 June 1919 Westminster, County of London, United Kingdom |
(aged 61)
Spouse(s) | Frances Hester Reitz |
Children | Oliver Schreiner |
Alma mater |
University of the Cape of Good Hope University of London Downing College, Cambridge |
Profession | Barrister, Politician |
William Philip Schreiner CMG QC(30 August 1857 – 28 June 1919) was a barrister, politician, statesman and Prime Minister of the Cape Colony during the Second Boer War.
Schreiner was born at Wittebergen Mission Station near Herschel, Eastern Cape. He was the tenth child of two missionaries Gottlob Schreiner and his wife, the former Rebecca Lyndall, and a younger brother of the writer Olive Schreiner. He was educated at Bedford, the South African College in Cape Town, the University of the Cape of Good Hope, the University of London and Downing College, Cambridge. He took a First in the London LL.B. examination and was senior jurist in the Cambridge Law Tripos. He was admitted to the English bar in 1882, returned to Cape Town as an advocate of the Cape Supreme Court and established a thriving law practice.
Schreiner became a parliamentary draughtsman in 1885, and acted as legal adviser to the gGovernor and high commissioner in 1887. His proximity to parliamentarians gave him an entrée to political life, and in 1893 he was elected member of the Cape Parliament for Kimberley. That same year he became attorney-general in Cecil Rhodes's cabinet, which was supported by Jan Hendrik "Onze Jan" Hofmeyr and the Afrikaner Bond until the Jameson Raid, when Rhodes's imperial ambitions became clear, causing the resignation of Schreiner and the rest of the ministers in January 1896.