Edward Philip Solomon

Sir Edward Phillip ("E.P.") Solomon (1845-1914) was a successful lawyer and politician of the South African Republic.

Edward Solomon was born in 1845, studied to be an attorney, and based himself in Johannesburg. He was involved in politics from early on, strongly identifying with the cause of the "Uitlanders" (English resident in the Boer republics). He even became a prominent member of the Reform Committee which sponsored the Jameson Raid in 1895. His involvement in this disastrous event led to his brief imprisonment in Pretoria.

He became the first Chairman of the Responsible Government Association and eventually a member of Louis Botha’s Transvaal cabinet from 1907-1910. He was also elected to the Senate in the new united Republic of South Africa after Union.^[1]

Edward was a member of a large and influential Cape family, of St Helenan Jewish descent. Members of the Solomon family were heavily involved in Cape politics, were physically all remarkably tiny, and included some of the greatest legal minds in southern Africa. The great Cape Colony politician Saul Solomon was Edward's uncle, and his brother was the Attorney General Sir Richard Solomon.^[2]

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