Sir William Bisset Berry KC (26 July 1839 – 8 June 1922) was a South African politician and the fourth Speaker of the Legislative *embly of the Cape Colony.

Contents

• 1 Early life
• 2 Politics
• 3 Speaker of the Cape Parliament
• 4 See also
• 5 References
• 6 Further reading

Early life

Born in Aberdeen, Scotland, and educated at that University, Bisset Berry came to the Cape Colony in 1864 as a ship's surgeon and settled in Queenstown, Eastern Cape. His engagement to Agnes Baden-Powell was announced in The Illustrated London News of 27 April 1901, but they never married.

Politics

He later became Queenstown's mayor and was elected as its representative in the Cape Parliament in 1894.

Speaker of the Cape Parliament

Although he hated publicity, he was an engaging public speaker and a skilled debater so when there was a vacancy for the position of Speaker of Parliament, he was elected unopposed in 1898, even though he had only 4 years of parliamentary experience and his command of the Afrikaans language was not great. Reclusive and humble to a fault, he lamented his inexperience and lack of qualifications, but actually fared well and showed himself to be decisive and firm when necessary.

His term in office came at a time of great instability and he presided over the votes of no confidence in Sprigg's government and the application of martial law in the Cape Colony. In 1902 he distinguished himself with his strong opposition to the attempt by the British Colonial Office to suspend the Cape cons*ution.

He sought re-election in 1908, but was not returned to office (only being re-elected as an ordinary member in the 1910 election). The young James Molteno was elected to replace him as Speaker.

See also

• Speaker of the South African National *embly

References

Further reading

• Royal Commonwealth Society: Proceedings Vol.29. London: Royal Colonial Ins*ute, 1898.