| Sir Francis Drummond Percy Chaplin |
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SIR DRUMMOND CHAPLIN SERVICES TO RHODESIA We regret to announce that a telegram from our Capetown Correspondent states that Sir Drummond Chaplin died suddenly yesterday afternoon of heart failure at his home Noordhoek, near Capetown, at the age of 67. He had been ailing for some weeks after a bad heart attack in Johannesburg,, but was not thought to be in danger. During his recent visit to England he contracted an illness of the chest, from which he seemed to recover completely before returning last August. Soon afterwards he went to attend to business affairs in Southern Rhodesia, and he also visited Beira and Northern Rhodesia. He became ill after the exertions of that journey. Frances Drummond Percy Chaplin had a long and distinguished political career in South Africa. He was the son of the late Major Percy Chaplin of the 60th Rifles, and was born on August 10, 1866. From Harrow (Mr. Watson's), where he gained an entrance Scholarship and became in 1884 Head of the School, he went to Oxford as a scholar of University College. He took a first class in Classical Moderations and a second class in Lit. Hum. He was secretary of the Canning Club when the present Archbishop of Canterbury was one of it's "stars." In 1891 he was called to the Bar by Lincoln's Inn. In 1895 he married Margaret Seaton, daughter of the late Mr. W. Seaton Smith, and in the following year they left England for South Africa. It had been Chaplain's intention to practise at the Rhodesian Bar; but when they reached Capetown they learned that Rhodesia was in the throes of the native rebellion |
which occurred after the Jameson raid into the neighboring Republic.
Obliged to change his plans Chaplin decided to settle in the Transvaal, and after recovering, with some difficulty, the furniture which they had sent on in advance to Rhodesia, the Chaplins took a house in Johannesburg.
Shortly afterwards began the connexion with South African politics which was to be Chaplin's life work; for when, in 1897, Sir Francis Younghusband, who had come out on a special mission for The Times, returned to England. Chaplin was appointed to act as The Times correspondent at Johannesburg. He left South Africa in 1899, going to St. Petersburg as representative of the Morning Post. But he returned in 1900, having been appointed by the Consolidated Goldfields of South Africa, Limited, to be their joint general manager in Johannesburg. In that capacity he showed himself to be a very keen and active man of business, but he was more than that; he was a prominent figure in the social life of the Rand and took an active interest in all the political activity of the British community there during the Crown Colony règime. Lord Milner appointed him a member of the Nominated Town Council of Johannesburg. He was a keen advocate of the importance of Chinese Labour to the Rand, having no doubt that in the existing circumstances of the African labour supply this measure was essential to the economic salvation of South Africa. In that, as in other matters, he was a staunch supporter of Lord Milner's policy. In 1905 he helped to found the Transvaal Progressive Association, the British party led by Sir George Farrar, and throughout the vicissitudes of its existence under that name, and later under the name of the Unionist Party, he remained one of the most loyal, as he was one of the ablest, of Sir George Farrar's lieutenants. He occupied the presidential chair at the Chamber of Mines during the year 1905-06. |
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By that time the end of Crown Colony rule was in sight, and Chaplin took a prominent part both in the discussions that proceeded the promulgation of the ill-fated Lyttelton Constitution and in the intense campaign which followed the decision of the Liberal Government, newly returned to power by the "Chinese Slavery" election, to grant complete autonomy to the Transvaal.
He was one of the four members of the Executive Council of the Progressive Association - the other three being Sir Percy Fitzpatrick, Sir Abe Bailey, and Mr. Lindsay - who accompanied the West Ridgeway Committee back to England and unsuccessfully pressed their views on the Colonial Secretary (Lord Elgin).
Chaplin's Parliamentary experience began in 1907, when he was returned to the first - it was also the last - Transvaal Parliament as member for Germiston West.
In 1910 he was elected to the first Union Parliament, again for Germiston West.
He resigned his seat in the Union Parliament in 1914, in consequence of his appointment as Administrator of Southern Rhodesia, an appointment largely due to Jameson's high opinion of his abilities. | His administration opened auspiciously - the train carrying him to Salisbury was delayed 24 hours by torrential rains which signified that a long and disastrous drought had broken shortly after the train entered Rhodesia - and it was successful throughout. His handling of economic questions showed skill and judgment, and at the end of the Great War the finances of the Territory were at least as sound as they had been at the beginning. He helped the farmers over their War-time difficulties by concluding an agreement with the Imperial Government for the sale of the surplus crop of maize, and by persuading the Union Government to allow Rhodesian cattle into the Rand cattle market again, they having been excluded on account of the prevalence in Rhodesia of African coast fever. All War-time patriotic movements had his active support. He was created K.C.M.G. in 1917, and in 1921 he was appointed also to be Administrator of Northern Rhodesia, so that he was in official charge of the whole of Rhodesia from that date until the inauguration, in 1923, of self government in Southern Rhodesia, when he relinquished both administratorships and was created G.B.E. |
| Regret at his departure was general. The Indian community gave him a picturesque farewell, and presented an address expressing their "high appreciation of kindness and consideration received from Administrator." Chaplin returned to the Cape and resumed his business and public activities. He joined the boards of the British South Africa Company and Rhodesia Railways, of the Wireless Telegraph Company of South Africa, of Barclays Dominion, Colonial, and Overseas Bank, and of many other companies. At the General Election in 1924, which brought the Nationalist-Labour combination into power, he was returned to the Union Parliament, as a supporter of General Smuts, for the South Peninsula division of the Cape Province, but did not stand again at the next General Election. |
The remainder of his life was devoted to his now multifarious business activities and to the enjoyment of sport, particularly horse racing, and of the amenities of a beautiful home, which he built for himself at Noordhoek, near Chapman's Bay, in the Cape Peninsula.
His business entailed frequent visits both to Rhodesia and Johannesburg, so that he remained to the end of his life one of the best known figures in the whole British South African community.
His hospitality was generous, and notwithstanding a certain aristocratic aloofness of manner, his real warmth of heart and capacity for friendship made him one of the best liked, as he was always one of the most respected, citizens of the Dominion which he had chosen for his home.
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