| Douglass | Arthur | | | Born at Market Harborough, Leicestershire, Jan, 1843, was fifth son of L Douglass, Solicitor, Market Harborough; was educated at the Leicester Collegiate School, and served as a Midshipman in the Royal Navy. He went to the Cape as a Land Surveyor in 1864, and started farming and the domestication of ostriches. He was Captain of the 'Rovers' in the Kaffir War of 1878, when he was present at the Pen Bush engagement; in the Morosi Campaign of 1879 was Captain in the 1st Cape Yeomanry Regiment, and served in the Boer War as Major and OC of the Albany Mounted Troops. He entered the Cape Assembly as member for Grahamstown at the general election in 1884, and represented that constituency with slight intermission from that time until, in Feb, 1904, the Progressives rejected him at the general election. Failing there he put up unsuccessfully for Woodstock. He went out of the Govt, with Sir Gordon Sprigg's resignation following the result of the elections. Mr Douglass was a Moderate in politics; was associated with the Anti-Suspensionist party; and joined Sir Gordon Sprigg's Cabinet as Minister for Railways and Commissioner of Public Works. During Sir Gordon's absence in England, in the summer of 1902, he acted as Premier of the Colony, and later in the year (Sep) made a violent attack upon the High Commissioner for making unreasonable demands upon the Govt, railways. He published a work, entitled Ostrich Farming in South Africa, and married, in 1867, Martha Emily, second daughter of Joseph Perkins, of Laughton, Leicestershire. He died Oct 12, 1905. | Albany DMT |
