Milner

Description

Lord Alfred Milner was a brilliant public servant and
one of Britain’s most famous empire builders who left
an indelible imprint on the history of South Africa.
Milner was a prominent figure in the Anglo-Boer
War – a conflict that proved to be the beginning of the
end of the British Empire. After the war, a determined
Milner set out to reconstruct the country by leaving
behind a group of young administrators who
contributed to the unification of South Africa, but
also resentment among Afrikaners for their mentor’s
language and education policies.
Back in England, Milner involved himself via the
House of Lords in all the great issues of British politics,
while continuing to promote the ends of Empire
through the activities of the Round Table movement.
This biography, the first by a South African,
argues that Milner’s reputation should not be defined
by his eight years’ service in South Africa alone as
he did much to shape the Allied victory in the First
World War. If his personal qualities and beliefs made
him the wrong man to send to South Africa, he was
the right man in a far greater international conflict.