Milner, Alfred

Milner, Alfred

 later Viscount Milner (of St. James's and Cape Town)

(born March 23, 1854, Giessen, Hesse-Darmstadt—died May 13, 1925, Sturry Court, near Canterbury, Kent, Eng.) British high commissioner in South Africa (1897–1905). At the crucial Bloemfontein Conference with Pres. Paul Kruger (1899), Milner advocated granting full citizenship to the Uitlanders (British residents in the Transvaal) after five years' residence. Kruger opposed the policy but was prepared to make concessions. Milner was not, claiming that “war has got to come”; Boer forces invaded Natal four months later, marking the beginning of the South African War. Milner later served as secretary for war (1916–19) and colonial secretary (1919–21).