South African and British soldier, statesman, and leader, his statue stands with the greats of history in Parliament Square.
From Wikipedia: (
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"Jan Christiaan Smuts OM, CH, ED, PC, KC, FRS (24 May 1870 – 11 September 1950) was a prominent South African and British Commonwealth statesman, military leader and philosopher. In addition to holding various cabinet posts, he served as prime minister of the Union of South Africa from 1919 until 1924 and from 1939 until 1948. Although Smuts had originally advocated racial segregation and opposed the enfranchisement of black Africans, his views changed and he backed the Fagan Commission's findings that complete segregation was impossible. Smuts subsequently lost the 1948 election to hard-line Afrikaners who created apartheid. He continued to work for reconciliation and emphasised the British Commonwealth’s positive role until his death in 1950.
He led a Boer Commando in the Second Boer War for the Transvaal. During the First World War, he led the armies of South Africa against Germany, capturing German South-West Africa and commanding the British Army in East Africa. From 1917 to 1919, he was also one of the members of the British Imperial War Cabinet and he was instrumental in the founding of what became the Royal Air Force (RAF). He became a field marshal in the British Army in 1941, and served in the Imperial War Cabinet under Winston Churchill. He was the only man to sign both of the peace treaties ending the First and Second World Wars. . . ."
More detail on is military career from South Africa History Online: (
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"General Jan Christiaan Smuts was born near Riebeeck West in the Cape Colony on 24 May 1870. . . .
During the Second Anglo-Boer War, he was deeply involved in the planning and execution of the extended guerrilla phase of the conflict. He distinguished himself as a military strategist and became a general in the Republican Forces. He attended the Vereeniging Peace Conference in 1902 as legal adviser to the Transvaal government.
After peace was signed, he returned to Pretoria and again went into legal practice. . . .
During this time, he devoted his energies to the achievement of a political union of the four British colonies in South Africa and was largely responsible for the drafting of the Union of South Africa's constitution as a delegate to the National Convention.
In 1908, Smuts was also confronted with resistance from the Indian population in South Africa, led by M.K Gandhi. Ghandi and the Indian community were protesting against compulsory registration as dictated by the Asiatic Law Amendment Ordinance of 1906, and were imprisoned. After writing to him from prison, Smuts met with Gandhi, and agreed to make registration voluntary, which became known as the Gandhi-Smuts- compromise.
His view on the treatment of Black people in the future Union was that, while it was the duty of Whites to deal justly with them and raise them up in civilization, they must not be given political power. At the time, Smuts believed that reconciliation between Afrikaans and English-speakers was a priority, and vital to the future of success of South Africa after the Anglo-Boer War.
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During the First World War, he excelled as field general in the German South-West African and East African campaigns and also served on the Imperial War Cabinet. He was instrumental in the creation of the Royal Air Force (RAF) and ensured the independence of the British dominions.
Smuts played an important role in the drafting of the constitution of the League of Nations, forerunner of the United Nations. In 1919, he attended the Paris Peace Conference with Botha and, following Botha's death in August, became Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa.
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In 1933, Smuts became Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Justice under Hertzog. Their coalition led to the formation of the United Party in 1934. In 1939, Hertzog and Smuts differed over the war issue and on Hertzog’s defeat in parliament on the motion to remain neutral during the war, Smuts took over as Premier.
The decision to enter World War Two (WW2) on the side of Britain alienated many of the Afrikaans-speaking people from his government. Smuts contributed to the policy-making decisions of the Allied forces and was promoted to field marshal of the British Army in 1941.
During World War Two (WW2), inspired by the Native Representative Council, the African National Congress (ANC), the Transvaal Indian Council and other organisations, non-White races became increasingly dissatisfied with their political impotence and economic backwardness. To look into these grievances, Smuts established the Fagan Commission after the war in August 1946, to investigate laws relating to urban Blacks, pass laws, and the socio-economic circumstances of migrant workers.
Smuts, on behalf of the United Party, accepted the third suggested policy of the commission, namely that of acceptance of the fact that Whites and the other races existed side by side in South Africa and that legislation and administration would have to take into account the differences between them. This commission, and Smuts with them, in effect considered the policy of apartheid or total segregation altogether impractical. In Smuts’ own words:
“The idea that the Natives must all be removed and confined in their own kraals is in my opinion the greatest nonsense I have ever heard.”
In the meantime, the Herenigde National Party appointed the Sauer Commission to formulate guidelines for a future policy towards other races. The Sauer Commission, fearing that a policy steering a middle course between equalisation and apartheid would lead to integration, advocated the policy of apartheid.
The general election of May 1948, won by the Herenigde National Party largely supported by the Afrikaner community, decided the future policy of South Africa for the next fifty years. After the election Smuts resigned and Dr. D.F. Malan took over the government.
Jan Smuts died on his farm Doornkloof, near Irene close to Pretoria, on 11 September 1950, after suffering a coronary thrombosis and several heart attacks.
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In 2004, Smuts was listed by voters in an opinion poll held by the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) as sixth of the top hundred Greatest South Africans of all time."