Lord William Waldegrave Palmer Selborne

Born: 17 October 1859
Died: 26 February 1942
Updated: 23 Aug 2019

Lord William Waldegrave Palmer Selborne portrait

Summary

High Commissioner in South Africa, and Governor of the Transvaal and Orange River Colony.

Lord William Palmer, the second Earl of Selborne was born in 1859. He studied history at the University of Oxford. He was Under-Secretary for the Colonies from 1895 to 1900, when he was appointed First Lord of the Admiralty. He came to South Africa to succeed Lord Milner as High Commissioner in South Africa, and Governor of the Transvaal and Orange River Colony, in April 1905. He showed much more understanding and was much more approachable than his haughty predecessor, and also, as a keen farmer, he was bound to be more popular than Milner in an agrarian community.

How we know this

01Potgieter, D.J. (ed)(1973). Standard Encyclopedia of Southern Africa, Vol.9, Cape Town: Nasou, p.578.
02Williams, B. (1925).The Selborne memorandum on the Union of South Africa.

Last updated · 23 Aug 2019

Cite this entry

South African History Online. (2011, February 17). Lord William Waldegrave Palmer Selborne. South African History Online. https://sahistory.org.za/ref/B-0009014

South African History Online (2011) 'Lord William Waldegrave Palmer Selborne', South African History Online, 17 February. Available at: https://sahistory.org.za/ref/B-0009014 (Accessed: 20 October 2026).

South African History Online, Lord William Waldegrave Palmer Selborne [website], https://sahistory.org.za/ref/B-0009014, (accessed 20 October 2026).

"Lord William Waldegrave Palmer Selborne." South African History Online, 17 Feb. 2011, https://sahistory.org.za/ref/B-0009014. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.

South African History Online. "Lord William Waldegrave Palmer Selborne." South African History Online. February 17, 2011. https://sahistory.org.za/ref/B-0009014.