due to stand trial before a special court set up by the Government of Natal for his alleged treasonous participation in the rebellion of 1906. Schreiner felt that the Union Government and Parliament proposed for South Africa would not uphold the liberal Bantu policy of the Cape Colony, so he went to London to oppose the passage of the South Africa Act through the British Parliament in 1909. He brought together a group of to call for the Cape franchise which allowed all men of property to vote, irrespective of race, to be implemented in the whole of South Africa. Schreiner led the group to London, but the delegation was unsuccessful in its appeal, despite receiving considerable support from the infant Labour Party and other liberal British organisations. It was from this delegation that the African National Congress was formed in 1912. With the forming of the Union in 1910 he became one of the first senators nominated to look after Black interests. Having already been made a member of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom which allowed him to be addressed as the "Right Honourable", in the 1911 New Year Honours he was granted use of "The Honourable". Later life Schreiner was on holiday in England at the outbreak of the First World War and was asked by Gen. Botha to fill the post of High Commissioner for South Africa in London. For his work during the war as High Commissioner, King Albert I of Belgium awarded Schreiner the Grand Officer of the Order of the Crown. He died in Trefaldwyn, on 28 June 1919, the day the Treaty of Versailles was signed. Schreiner was married in 1884 to Frances Hester Reitz, a sister of President F. W. Reitz. They had four children, including Oliver Schreiner, who became a judge. Notes References External links The papers of WP Schreiner held by the University of Cape Town Libraries. 1857 births 1919 deaths People from Senqu Local Municipality White South African people South African people of German descent South African Party (Cape Colony) politicians Prime Ministers of the Cape Colony Members of the House of Assembly of the Cape Colony South African members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom 19th-century South African people University of Cape Town alumni Alumni of Downing College, Cambridge Alumni of the University of London South African Companions of the Order of St Michael