Olive Schreiner - London, England - Blue Plaques on Waymarking.com

Olive Schreiner was born on March 24, 1855 to a missionary couple, Gottlob Schreiner and Rebecca Lyndall, at the Wesleyan Missionary Society station at Wittebergen, South Africa. Her career ambition was to become a doctor. In 1880, to realize this ambition she traveled to the United Kingdom. Ill-health and lack of financial resources prevented her from completing any form of training or studying. She turned to writing for her life's work.

In 1883 she published her highly acclaimed novel, The Story of an African Farm. The novel is base on life on the colonial frontier and deals with such intellectual concepts as agnosticism, existential independence, individualism and the professional aspirations of women. She also championed the causes of those affected by the forces of British Imperialism in South Africa.: Afrikaners, Blacks, Jews and Indians.

In 1889, she returned to South Africa and got involved with Cape politics. In 1894 she married Samuel Cronwright and settled down to live at Cronwright's farm. She opposed the harsh policies of Cecil John Rhodes and she lampooned him in a satirical allegory - Trooper Peter Halket of Mashonaland - written in 1896.

In 1911, she published - Woman and Labour - where she espoused her views on socialism and gender equality. Schreiner was suffering from asthma and attacks of angina and in 1913, she returned to England for treatment. During the Great War her interest turned to pacifism and corresponded with activists such as Gandhi, Emily Hobhouse and Elizabeth Maria Molteno. Her book on war - The Dawn of Civilisation -was her last book. She returned home to the Cape and died on December 11, 1920.