"Women & marriage, Boer guns saved South Africa, Jameson Raid, Rhodes is over" Read the full letter

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Herbert Gladstone

Herbert John Gladstone (1854 - 1930) was the youngest son of William Gladstone and a prominent British Liberal politician. He was Home Secretary between 1905 and 1910, and then Governor General of the Union of South Africa from 1910 to 1914. On hearing of his appointment to South Africa, Schreiner wrote to her brother Will in December 1909 that “I am very sorry Gladstone is coming out. All my liberal friends write of him as an ?unmixed fool; & he will simply run the Transvaal as a donkey is driven along in a cart!”. Schreiner was a friend of Gladstone’s sister Mary Drew, who visited South Africa in 1911, on which occasion Schreiner met them both. Again writing to Will Schreiner, she wrote in April 1911 about this meeting, “I found Lady Gladstone a pleasant very friendly little person - But Herbert! - isn’t he ‘pap’. I believe he thought I was going to shout ‘Votes for Women!’ He looked so relieved when I shook his hand & said I was glad to see him! He beamed all over, & invited me to Pretoria - but I said it didn’t suit my health.”

For further information see:
H. C. G. Matthew (2004) ‘Gladstone, Herbert John, Viscount Gladstone (1854-1930)’ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Oxford University Press http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/33417 
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collection icon SCCS Edited Extracts: Four groups of edited extracts from Olive Schreiner's letters can be accessed from here, made by her estranged husband Cronwr... Show/Hide Collection Letters
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