Francis William Reitz

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Francis William Reitz (b. Swellendam, 5 October 1844; d. Cape Town, 27 March 1934) was a Boer politician at the time of the Second Boer War.

He studied in Britain and although admitted to the Cape bar in 1868, he set off diamond digging. Unsuccessful, he returned to practise law and in 1872 was elected to the Cape Parliament.

Two years later, at the request of President Jan Brand, he became chairman of the Appeal Court in Bloemfontein and soon afterwards was made Chief Justice of the Free State, holding this post for thirteen years.

He supported the Afrikaner Bond in spite of Brand's opposition, and became President of the Orange Free State from 1889, a post he held until 1895. In this time he encouraged closer relations with the Transvaal.

He delivered both the Boer ultimatum to the British that started the war and the peace treaty that effectively ended it. His own personal disagreement with the treaty meant he spent the remainder of his life in a self-imposed exile in Holland and later in the United States. He returned to South Africa where he became President of the Senate until 1921, when he retired from public life.

[edit] References

'Commando' by his son, Deneys Reitz