Jan Smuts

Field Marshal The Right Honourable Jan Smuts OM CH DTD ED KC FRS
Smuts in 1934
2nd Prime Minister of South Africa
In office 5 September 1939 – 4 June 1948
Monarch	George VI
Governors‑General	Sir Patrick Duncan Nicolaas Jacobus de Wet Gideon Brand van Zyl
Preceded by	Barry Hertzog
Succeeded by	Daniël Malan
In office 3 September 1919 – 30 June 1924
Monarch	George V
Governors‑General	The Viscount Buxton Prince Arthur of Connaught The Earl of Athlone
Preceded by	Louis Botha
Succeeded by	Barry Hertzog
Leader of the Opposition
In office 4 June 1948 – 11 September 1950
Monarch	George VI
Prime Minister	Daniël Malan
Preceded by	Daniël Malan
Succeeded by	Jacobus Strauss
Personal details
Born	Jan Christiaan[1] (or Christian) Smuts[2] (1870-05-24)24 May 1870 Bovenplaats, Cape Colony
Died	11 September 1950(1950-09-11) (aged 80) Irene, Transvaal, Union of South Africa
Nationality	South African
Political party	South African Party United Party
Spouse	Isie Krige
Children	6
Alma mater	Victoria College, Stellenbosch Christ's College, Cambridge Middle Temple
Profession	Barrister
Signature
Military service
Allegiance	South African Republic Union of South Africa United Kingdom
Rank	Field Marshal
Commands	South African Defence Forces
Battles/wars	Second Boer War First World War

Field Marshal Jan Christian Smuts, OM, CH, DTD, ED, PC, KC, FRS (baptismal name Jan Christiaan Smuts, 24 May 1870 – 11 September 1950) was a South African statesman, military leader and philosopher.^[1] In addition to holding various military and cabinet posts, he served as prime minister of the Union of South Africa from 1919 to 1924 and 1939 to 1948.

Smuts was born to Afrikaner parents in the British Cape Colony. He was educated at Victoria College, Stellenbosch before reading law at Christ's College, Cambridge on a scholarship. He was called to the bar at the Middle Temple in 1894 but returned home the following year. In the leadup to the Second Boer War, Smuts practised law in Pretoria, the capital of the South African Republic. He led the republic's delegation to the Bloemfontein Conference and served as an officer in a commando unit following the outbreak of war in 1899. In 1902, he played a key role in negotiating the Treaty of Vereeniging, which ended the war and resulted in the annexation of the South African Republic and Orange Free State into the British Empire. He subsequently helped negotiate self-government for the Transvaal Colony, becoming a cabinet minister under Louis Botha.

Smuts played a leading role in the creation of the Union of South Africa in 1910, helping shape its constitution. He and Botha established the South African Party, with Botha becoming the union's first prime minister and Smuts holding multiple cabinet portfolios. As defence minister he was responsible for the Union Defence Force during the First World War. Smuts personally led troops in the East African campaign in 1916 and the following year joined the Imperial War Cabinet in London. He played a leading role at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, advocating for the creation of the League of Nations and securing South African control over the former German South-West Africa.

In 1919, Smuts replaced Botha as prime minister, holding the office until the South African Party's defeat at the 1924 general election by J. B. M. Hertzog's National Party. He spent several years in academia, during which he coined the term "holism", before eventually re-entering politics as deputy prime minister in a coalition with Hertzog; in 1934 their parties subsequently merged to form the United Party. Smuts returned as prime minister in 1939, leading South Africa into the Second World War at the head of a pro-interventionist faction. He was appointed field marshal in 1941 and in 1945 signed the UN Charter, the only signer of the Treaty of Versailles to do so. His second term in office ended with the victory of his political opponents, the reconstituted National Party at the 1948 general election, with the new government beginning the implementation of apartheid.

Smuts was an internationalist who played a key role in establishing and defining the League of Nations, United Nations and Commonwealth of Nations. He supported racial segregation and opposed democratic non-racial rule. At the end of his career, Smuts supported the Fagan Commission's recommendations to relax restrictions on black South Africans living and working in urban areas.