John William Jagger (20 September 1859,

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

- 20 June 1930,

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

) was a South African businessman and cabinet minister. He emigrated to South Africa in 1880 and became a clerk in a business in

. In 1883 he established his own business as an importer of fabrics and laid the foundation for the later well-known firm by his name. He took an active interest in the economy and became a spokesman for trade. In November 1902 he became a member of the Cape Legislative Assembly (where he was a strong supporter of free trade) for

–Central in the

House of Assembly House of Assembly is a name given to the legislature or lower house of a bicameral parliament. In some countries this may be at a subnational level. Historically, in British Crown colonies as the colony gained more internal responsible governme ...

. From 1908 to 1909 he was a member of the

National Convention The National Convention (french: link=no, Convention nationale) was the parliament of the Kingdom of France for one day and the French First Republic for the rest of its existence during the French Revolution, following the two-year National ...

which drafted the

South Africa Act The South Africa Act 1909 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which created the Union of South Africa from the British Cape Colony, Colony of Natal, Orange River Colony, and Transvaal Colony. The Act also made provisions for pote ...

and paved the way for

Union Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...

. He was re-elected as a Member of the Union in the 1915 election. In 1921 he became Minister of Railways in Gen.

Jan Smuts Field Marshal Jan Christian Smuts, (24 May 1870 11 September 1950) was a South African statesman, military leader and philosopher. In addition to holding various military and cabinet posts, he served as prime minister of the Union of South Af ...

's cabinet, during which he had to carry out the unpopular policy of retrenchments. He contributed extensively to educational causes, including the

Jagger Library The Jagger Library (also known as the Jagger Reading Room, previously known as the J. W. Jagger Linear Library) was the main reading room of the University of Cape Town Libraries. The building was constructed in the 1930s, named after John Will ...

at the

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) ( af, Universiteit van Kaapstad, xh, Yunibesithi ya yaseKapa) is a public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university statu ...

, which is named after him. He died in 1930 in Cape Town. File:Smuts_Cabinet_1923.jpg, Smuts Cabinet c1923 File:FeesMustFall_protests_at_UCT_-_the_second_day_of_protests_01_(cropped).JPG, Jagger Library as it appeared during a protest in 2015

References

Sources

* Albertyn, dr. C.F. (ed.) 1962. ''Die Afrikaanse Kinderensiklopedie''. Cape Town, Bloemfontein, Johannesburg: National Bookshop Ltd. * Rosenthal, Eric. 1978. '' Encyclopaedia of Southern Africa ''. Cape Town and Johannesburg: Juta and Company Limited. English emigrants to South Africa South African politicians 1859 births 1930 deaths South African Party (Union of South Africa) politicians {{WesternCape-politician-stub