Henry Bartle Frere

Sir Henry Bartle Edward Frere, 1st Baronet, was a British colonial administrator. He had a successful career in India, rising to become Governor of Bombay. However, as High Commissioner for Southern Africa, he implemented a set of policies which attempted to impose a British confederation on the region and which led to the overthrow of the Cape Colony's first elected government in 1878 and to a string of regional wars, culminating in the invasion of Zululand and the First Boer War. The British Prime Minister, Gladstone, recalled Frere to London to face charges of misconduct; Whitehall officially censured Frere for acting recklessly.