| FitzPatrick | James Percy | | | He was born at King William's Town, July 24, 1862. He is the son of the Hon James Coleman FitzPatrick, an Irish barrister, who supported the political fortunes of Daniel O'Connell in his declining years, as well as those of the Liberator's son, John O'Connell, and who afterwards became Judge of the Supreme Court of the Cape Colony Sir Percy was educated at St Gregory's College, Downside, near Bath, and went to the Transvaal in 1884, where he has resided practically ever since, either on the alluvial diggings, or trading, hunting, or prospecting. In 1886 he settled at Barberton, leaving three years later for the Witwatersrand. He accompanied the Randolph Churchill expedition through Mashonaland in 1891, and in 1892, on returning to Johannesburg, took charge of the intelligence department of the firm of H Eckstein & Company, of which he became a partner in 1898, representing the firm on the boards of many of the premier mining companies of the Rand. Few men are more conversant with all the details of the mining industry or with the general affairs of the Transvaal than Sir Percy, as those will know who remember his evidence before the Industrial Commission in 1897, and subsequently before the Concessions Commission. He was one of the first to become associated with the Reform Committee in 1895, to which he acted as an indefatigable hon. secretary. For his participation in that movement he was arrested in January, 1896, and, with other ringleaders, was refused bail. He was put on trial in April for high treason against the Government of the SAR, and was condemned to suffer two years' imprisonment, to pay a fine of £2,000, or as an alternative another year's imprisonment, and thereafter to be banished from the State for a period of three years. This sentence was reduced to one year's imprisonment in the following May, but he was released during the same month. In 1897, when everybody thought (and rightly) that the Industrial Commission was intended merely as a farce, Sir Percy nevertheless pressed hard for the Uitlanders to take it seriously, if only for the purpose of once more putting their ease on record. In Feb, 1899, although this fact is not generally known, it was he who suggested to the Transvaal Govt, a conference between Mr Kruger and Lord Milner, and another between the Govt, and the people of Johannesburg. This was a most earnest and sincere effort to avert a war, as Sir Percy plainly stated, and his suggestions resulted in the Bloemfontein Conference and the 'Capitalist Negotiations'. However, these meetings were turned by the Boer Govt, to purposes other than peace. As evidence of his party's sincerity, he proposed, in order to remove causes of constant friction, that the mining people should forego their Bewaarplaatsen Rights, and buy them at a valuation instead of going to law and to the Raad for restitution in tote, and should also acquiesce in the Dynamite Monopoly, "Provided the profits, as originally intended, should go to the Government"; in fact that the terms of the original concession should be enforced if the Govt, would introduce the reforms in administration of the Liquor and other laws, as recommended by the Industrial Commission, and make some equitable concession of political rights to the Uitlanders. When the Capitalist Negotiations came about the Government, at first through Mr Lippert, and afterwards through Dr Leyds and Mr Reitz, refused to allow Sir Percy (although a partner in the leading house of Eckstein) to take part. He was the one barred. As soon, however, as the Government tried to introduce the Franchise question, the other representatives of the Capitalists refused to take part until Sir Percy FitzPatrick and some other representatives of the Uitlanders were admitted. After some delay the Govt, gave way, but Sir Percy would not participate in the negotiations without a written invitation which would release him from the condition of three years' silence which had been imposed on him in connection with the Reformers' sentences. This was given, and Sir Percy, having been authorised by the representatives of all classes to voice their case, went into the matter heart and soul, incidentally proving step by step how the Govt, had authorised the negotiations, and showing the devices by which they had sought to inveigle the negotiators into a false move. Sir Percy drew up the five years' franchise memorandum which was embodied in the Capitalist Negotiations documents (published in March or April, 1899), and which afterwards served as the basis of Lord Milner's Bloemfontein proposals. Before sending this memo, in, he showed it to the State Secretary, and State Attorney in Pretoria, who both said that it was absolutely just, but that Mr Kruger would never be induced to agree to it. Sir Percy's answer to this was, "Well, let us try. Let it be a basis for discussion, to bring us together and avert trouble." Sir Percy, as spokesman for the guarantors of the War Loan and representative of the public committee, took a principal part in the War Debt negotiations with Mr Chamberlain. He is one of the nonofficial members of the first Transvaal Legislative Council, and was elected by that body as one of the two Transvaal Representatives on the Inter-Colonial Council of the Transvaal and ORC, from which he resigned in 1904. He was President of the Witwatersrand Chamber of Mines in 1902. Sir Percy has a facile pen. He was, years ago, editor of the Barberton Herald, and besides many able contributions to the Press on questions of the moment, he has published an account of his Mashonaland trip, Through Mashonaland with Pick and Pen, and a charming volume of short stories under the name of The Outspan. But in England he will be more generally known as the author of The Transvaal from Within—a work which is every w here regarded as the textbook upon the events which led up to the inception of the Reform movement, and eventually culminated in raid and war. Sir Percy was made a Knight Bachelor in 1902 in recognition of his great services in connection with SA. He married, February 16, 1889, Elizabeth Lillian, daughter of John Cubitt, of Pretoria. | Unknown |
