The Right Honourable Jan Christiaan Smuts OM, CH, ED, KC, FRS, PC
4th Prime Minister of South Africa
In office 5 September 1939 – 4 June 1948
Monarch	George VI
Governor General	Sir Patrick Duncan Nicolaas Jacobus de Wet (Acting) Gideon Brand van Zyl
Preceded by	James Barry Munnik Hertzog
Succeeded by	Daniel François Malan
2nd Prime Minister of South Africa
In office 3 September 1919 – 30 June 1924
Monarch	George V
Governor General	The Earl of Buxton The Prince Arthur of Connaught The Earl of Athlone
Preceded by	Louis Botha
Succeeded by	James Barry Munnik Hertzog
Personal details
Born	(1870-05-24)24 May 1870 Bovenplaats, Cape Colony
Died	11 September 1950(1950-09-11) (aged 80) Doornkloof, Irene, Transvaal Province, Union of South Africa
Political party	South African Party United Party
Spouse(s)	Issie Krige
Religion	Calvinist
Signature	Jan Smuts's signature

Jan Christiaan Smuts, OM, CH, ED, KC, FRS,^[1] PC (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. He served in the First World War and as a British field marshal^[2] in the Second World War.

He led commandos 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 five members of the British War Cabinet, helping to create the Royal Air Force. 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 person to sign the peace treaties ending both the First and Second World Wars.

One of his greatest international accomplishments was the establishment of the League of Nations, the exact design and implementation of which relied upon Smuts.^[3] He later urged the formation of a new international organisation for peace: the UN. Smuts wrote the preamble to the United Nations Charter, and was the only person to sign the charters of both the League of Nations and the UN. He sought to redefine the relationship between the United Kingdom and her colonies, helping to establish the British Commonwealth, as it was known at the time. However, in 1946 the General Assembly requested the Smuts government to take measures to bring the treatment of Indians in South Africa into line with the provisions of the United Nations Charter.^[4]

In 2004 he was named by voters in a poll held by the South African Broadcasting Corporation (S.A.B.C.) as one of the top ten Greatest South Africans of all time. The final positions of the top ten were to be decided by a second round of voting, but the programme was taken off the air due to political controversy, and Nelson Mandela was given the number one spot based on the first round of voting. In the first round, Field Marshal Smuts came ninth.^[5]

Biography[link]

Early life[link]

Jacobus and Catharina Smuts, 1893.

He was born on 24 May 1870, at the family farm, Bovenplaats, near Malmesbury, in the Cape Colony. His family were prosperous, traditional Afrikaner farmers, long established and highly respected.

Jan was quiet and delicate as a child, strongly inclined towards solitary pursuits. During his childhood, he often went out alone, exploring the surrounding countryside; this awakened a passion for nature, which he retained throughout his life. As the second son of the family, rural custom dictated that he would remain working on the farm; a full formal education was typically the preserve of the first son. However, in 1882, when Jan was twelve, his elder brother died, and Jan was sent to school in his brother's place. Jan attended the school in nearby Riebeek West. He made excellent progress here, despite his late start, and caught up with his contemporaries within four years. He moved on to Victoria College, Stellenbosch, in 1886, at the age of sixteen.

At Stellenbosch, he learned High Dutch, German, and Ancient Greek, and immersed himself further in literature, the classics, and Bible studies. His deeply traditional upbringing and serious outlook led to social isolation from his peers. However, he made outstanding academic progress, graduating in 1891 with double First-class honours in Literature and Science. During his last years at Stellenbosch, Smuts began to cast off some of his shyness and reserve, and it was at this time that he met Isie Krige, whom he was later to marry.

On graduation from Victoria College, Smuts won the Ebden scholarship for overseas study. He decided to travel to the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom to read law at Christ's College.^[6] Smuts found it difficult to settle at Cambridge; he felt homesick and isolated by his age and different upbringing from the English undergraduates. Worries over money also contributed to his unhappiness, as his scholarship was insufficient to cover his university expenses. He confided these worries to a friend from Victoria College, Professor JI Marais. In reply, Professor Marais enclosed a cheque for a substantial sum, by way of loan, urging Smuts not to hesitate to approach him should he ever find himself in need.^[7] Thanks to Marais, Smuts's financial standing was secure. He gradually began to enter more into the social aspects of the university, although he retained his single-minded dedication to his studies.

During his time in Cambridge, he found time to study a diverse number of subjects in addition to law; he wrote a book, Walt Whitman: A Study in the Evolution of Personality, although it was unpublished until 1973.^[8] The thoughts behind this book laid the foundation for Smuts' later wide-ranging philosophy of holism.

Smuts graduated in 1893 with a double First. Over the previous two years, he had been the recipient of numerous academic prizes and accolades, including the coveted George Long prize in Roman Law and Jurisprudence.^[9] One of his tutors, Professor Maitland, a leading figure among English legal historians, described Smuts as the most brilliant student he had ever met.^[10] Lord Todd, the Master of Christ's College said in 1970 that "in 500 years of the College's history, of all its members, past and present, three had been truly outstanding: John Milton, Charles Darwin and Jan Smuts."^[11]

In 1894, Smuts passed the examinations for the Inns of Court, entering the Middle Temple. His old college, Christ's College, offered him a fellowship in Law. However, Smuts turned his back on a potentially distinguished legal future.^[12] By June 1895, he had returned to the Cape Colony, determined that he should make his future there.

Climbing the ladder[link]

Smuts began to practise law in Cape Town, but his abrasive nature made him few friends. Finding little financial success in the law, he began to divert more and more of his time to politics and journalism, writing for the Cape Times. Smuts was intrigued by the prospect of a united South Africa, and joined the Afrikaner Bond. By good fortune, Smuts’ father knew the leader of the group, Jan Hofmeyr; Hofmeyr recommended Jan to Cecil Rhodes, who owned the De Beers mining company. In 1895, Rhodes hired Smuts as his personal legal advisor, a role that found the youngster much criticised by the hostile Afrikaans press. Regardless, Smuts trusted Rhodes implicitly.

When Rhodes launched the Jameson Raid, in the summer of 1895–6, Smuts was outraged. Feeling betrayed by his employer, friend and political ally, he resigned from De Beers, and disappeared from public life. Seeing no future for himself in Cape Town, he decided to move to Johannesburg in August 1896. However, he was disgusted by what appeared to be a gin-soaked mining camp, and his new law practice could attract little business in such an environment. Smuts sought refuge in the capital of the South African Republic, Pretoria.

Through 1896, Smuts’ politics were turned on their head. He was transformed from being Rhodes’ most ardent supporter to being the most fervent opponent of British expansion. Through late 1896 and 1897, Smuts toured South Africa, furiously condemning Great Britain, Rhodes and anyone opposed to the Transvaal President, Paul Kruger.

In April 1897, he married Isie Krige of Cape Town. Professor JI Marais, Smuts’s benefactor at Cambridge, presided over the ceremony. Twins were born to the pair in March 1898, but unfortunately survived only a few weeks.

Kruger was opposed by many liberal elements in South Africa, and, when, in June 1898, Kruger fired the Transvaal Chief Justice, his long-term political rival John Gilbert Kotzé, most lawyers were up in arms. Recognising the opportunity, Smuts wrote a legal thesis in support of Kruger, who rewarded Smuts with an appointment as State Attorney. In this capacity, he tore into the establishment, firing those he deemed to be illiberal, old-fashioned or corrupt^{[citation needed]}. His efforts to rejuvenate the republic polarised Afrikaners.

After the Jameson Raid, relations between the British and the Afrikaners had deteriorated steadily. By 1898, war seemed imminent. Orange Free State President Martinus Steyn called for a peace conference at Bloemfontein to settle each side’s grievances. With an intimate knowledge of the British, Smuts took control of the Transvaal delegation. Sir Alfred Milner, head of the British delegation, took exception to his dominance, and conflict between the two led to the collapse of the conference, consigning South Africa to war.

The Boer War[link]

Jan Smuts and Boer guerrillas during the Second Boer War, ca. 1901

On 11 October 1899, the Boer republics invaded the British South African colonies, beginning the Second Boer War. In the early stages of the conflict, Smuts served as Kruger’s eyes and ears, handling propaganda, logistics, communication with generals and diplomats, and anything else that was required.

In the second phase of the war, Smuts served under Koos de la Rey, who commanded 500 commandos in the Western Transvaal. Smuts excelled at hit-and-run warfare, and the unit evaded and harassed a British army forty times its size. President Kruger and the deputation in Europe thought that there was good hope for their cause in the Cape Colony. They decided to send General de la Rey there to assume supreme command, but then decided to act more cautiously when they realised that General de la Rey could hardly be spared in the Western Transvaal.

Consequently, Smuts left with a small force of 300 men while another 100 men followed him. By this point in the war, the British scorched earth policy left little grazing land. One hundred of the cavalry that had joined Smuts were therefore too weak to continue and so Smuts had to leave these men with General Kritzinger. With few exceptions, Smuts met all the commandos in the Cape Colony and found between 1,400–1,500 men under arms, and not the 3,000 men as had been reported. By the time of the peace Conference in May 1902 there were 3,300 men operating in the Cape Colony. Although the people were enthusiastic for a general rising, there was a great shortage of horses (the Boers were an entirely mounted force) as they had been taken by the British. There was an absence of grass and wheat, which meant that he was forced to refuse nine tenths of those who were willing to join. The Boer forces raided supply lines and farms, spread Afrikaner propaganda, and intimidated those that opposed them, but they never succeeded in causing a revolt against the government. This raid was to prove one of the most influential military adventures of the 20th century and had a direct influence on the creation of the British Commandos and all the other special forces which followed. With these practical developments came the development of the military doctrines of deep penetration raids, asymmetric warfare and, more recently, elements of fourth generation warfare.

To end the conflict, Smuts sought to take a major target, the copper-mining town of Okiep. With a full assault impossible, Smuts packed a train full of explosives, and tried to push it downhill, into the town, where it would bring the enemy garrison to its knees. Although this failed, Smuts had proven his point: that he would stop at nothing to defeat his enemies. Norman Kemp Smith wrote that General Smuts read from Kant's "Critique of Pure Reason" on the evening before the raid. Smith contended that this showed how Kant's critique can be a solace and a refuge, as well as a means to sharpen the wit.^[13] Combined with their failure to pacify the Transvaal, Smuts' success left the United Kingdom with no choice but to offer a ceasefire and a peace conference, to be held at Vereeniging.

Before the conference, Smuts met Lord Kitchener at Kroonstad station, where they discussed the proposed terms of surrender. Smuts then took a leading role in the negotiations between the representatives from all of the commandos from the Orange Free State and the South African Republic (15–31 May 1902). Although he admitted that, from a purely military perspective, the war could continue, he stressed the importance of not sacrificing the Afrikaner people for that independence. He was very conscious that 'more than 20,000 women and children have already died in the concentration camps of the enemy'. He felt it would have been a crime to continue the war without the assurance of help from elsewhere and declared, "Comrades, we decided to stand to the bitter end. Let us now, like men, admit that that end has come for us, come in a more bitter shape than we ever thought."^{[cite this quote]} His opinions were representative of the conference, which then voted by 54 to 6 in favour of peace. Representatives of the Governments met Lord Kitchener and at five minutes past eleven on 31 May 1902, Acting President Burger signed the Peace Treaty, followed by the members of his government, Acting President de Wet and the members of his government.

A British Transvaal[link]

For all Smuts' exploits as a general and a negotiator, nothing could mask the fact that the Afrikaners had been defeated and humiliated. Lord Milner had full control of all South African affairs, and established an Anglophone elite, known as Milner's Kindergarten. As an Afrikaner, Smuts was excluded. Defeated but not deterred, in January 1905, he decided to join with the other former Transvaal generals to form a political party, Het Volk (People's Party),^[14] to fight for the Afrikaner cause. Louis Botha was elected leader, and Smuts his deputy.

When his term of office expired, Milner was replaced as High Commissioner by the more conciliatory Lord Selborne. Smuts saw an opportunity and pounced, urging Botha to persuade the Liberals to support Het Volk’s cause. When the Conservative government under Arthur Balfour collapsed, in December 1905, the decision paid off. Smuts joined Botha in London, and sought to negotiate full self-government for the Transvaal within British South Africa. Using the thorny political issue of South Asian labourers ('coolies'), the South Africans convinced Prime Minister Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman and, with him, the cabinet and Parliament.

Through 1906, Smuts worked on the new constitution for the Transvaal, and, in December 1906, elections were held for the Transvaal parliament. Despite being shy and reserved, unlike the showman Botha, Smuts won a comfortable victory in the Wonderboom constituency, near Pretoria. His victory was one of many, with Het Volk winning in a landslide and Botha forming the government. To reward his loyalty and efforts, Smuts was given two key cabinet positions: Colonial Secretary and Education Secretary.

Smuts proved to be an effective leader, if unpopular. As Education Secretary, he had fights with the Dutch Reformed Church, of which he had once been a dedicated member, who demanded Calvinist teachings in schools. As Colonial Secretary, he opposed a movement for equal rights for South Asian workers, led by Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. Despite Smuts’ unpopularity, South Africa's economy continued to boom, and Smuts cemented his place as the Afrikaners’ brightest star.

During the years of Transvaal self-government, no-one could avoid the predominant political debate of the day: South African unification. Ever since the British victory in the war, it was an inevitability, but it remained up to the South Africans to decide what sort of country would be formed, and how it would be formed. Smuts favoured a unitary state, with power centralised in Pretoria, with English as the only official language, and with a more inclusive electorate. To impress upon his compatriots his vision, he called a constitutional convention in Durban, in October 1908.

There, Smuts was up against a hard-talking Orange River Colony delegation, who refused every one of Smuts' demands. Smuts had successfully predicted this opposition, and their objections, and tailored his own ambitions appropriately. He allowed compromise on the location of the capital, on the official language, and on suffrage, but he refused to budge on the fundamental structure of government. As the convention drew into autumn, the Orange leaders began to see a final compromise as necessary to secure the concessions that Smuts had already made. They agreed to Smuts’ draft South African constitution, which was duly ratified by the South African colonies. Smuts and Botha took the constitution to London, where it was passed by Parliament, and signed into law by Edward VII in December 1909. Smuts' dream had been realised.

The Old Boers[link]

The Union of South Africa was born, and the Afrikaners held the key to political power, for they formed the largest part of the electorate. Although Botha was appointed Prime Minister of the new country, Smuts was given three key ministries: those for the Interior, the Mines and Defence. Undeniably, Smuts was the second most powerful man in South Africa. To solidify their dominance of South African politics, the Afrikaners united to form the South African Party, a new pan-South African Afrikaner party.

The harmony and cooperation soon ended. Smuts was criticised for his over-arching powers, and was reshuffled, losing his positions in charge of Defence and the Mines, but gaining control of the Treasury. This was still too much for Smuts' opponents, who decried his possession of both Defence and Finance: two departments that were usually at loggerheads. At the 1913 South African Party conference, the Old Boers, of Hertzog, Steyn and De Wet, called for Botha and Smuts to step down. The two narrowly survived a conference vote, and the troublesome triumvirate stormed out, leaving the party for good.

With the schism in internal party politics came a new threat to the mines that brought South Africa its wealth. A small-scale miners' dispute flared into a full-blown strike, and rioting broke out in Johannesburg after Smuts intervened heavy-handedly. After police shot dead twenty-one strikers, Smuts and Botha headed unaccompanied to Johannesburg to personally resolve the situation. They did, facing down threats to their own lives, and successfully negotiating a cease-fire.

The cease-fire did not hold, and, in 1914, a railway strike turned into a general strike, and threats of a revolution caused Smuts to declare martial law. Smuts acted ruthlessly, deporting union leaders without trial and using Parliament to retrospectively absolve him or the government of any blame. This was too much for the Old Boers, who set up their own party, the National Party, to fight the all-powerful Botha-Smuts partnership. The Old Boers urged Smuts' opponents to arm themselves, and civil war seemed inevitable before the end of 1914. In October 1914, when the Government was faced with open rebellion by Lt Col Manie Maritz and others in the Maritz Rebellion, Government forces under the command of Botha and Smuts were able to put down the rebellion without it ever seriously threatening to ignite into a Third Boer War.

Soldier and statesman[link]

During the First World War, Smuts (right) and Botha were key members of the British Army.

During the First World War, Smuts formed the South African Defence Force. His first task was to suppress the Maritz Rebellion, which was accomplished by November 1914. Next he and Louis Botha led the South African army into German South West Africa and conquered it (see the South-West Africa Campaign for details). In 1916 General Smuts was put in charge of the conquest of German East Africa. Col (later BGen) J.H.V. Crowe commanded the artillery in East Africa under General Smuts and published an account of the campaign, General Smuts' Campaign in East Africa in 1918.

While the East African Campaign went fairly well, the German forces were not destroyed. Smuts was criticised by his chief Intelligence officer, Colonel Richard Meinertzhagen, for avoiding frontal attacks which, in Meinertzhagen's view, would have been less costly than the inconsequential flanking movements that prolonged the campaign where thousands of Imperial troops died of disease. Meinertzhangen believed Horace Smith-Dorrien (who had saved the British Army during the retreat from Mons), the original choice as commander in 1916 would have quickly defeated the German commander Colonel (later General) Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck. As for Smuts, Meinertzhagen wrote: "Smuts has cost Britain many hundreds of thousands of lives (sic) and many millions of pounds by his caution...Smuts was not an astute soldier; a brilliant statesman and politician but no soldier." ( Army Diary Oliver and Boyd 1960 page 205). However, early in 1917 Smuts was invited to join the Imperial War Cabinet by David Lloyd George, so he left the area and went to London. In 1918, Smuts helped to create a Royal Air Force, independent of the army.

Like most British Empire political and military leaders in World War I, Smuts thought the American Expeditionary Forces lacked the proper leadership and experience to be effective quickly. He supported the Anglo-French amalgamation policy towards the Americans. In particular, he had a low opinion of General John J. Pershing's leadership skills, so much so that he wrote a confidential letter to Lloyd George proposing Pershing be relieved of his command and that the US forces be placed "under someone more confident, like himself". This did not endear him to the Americans once it was leaked.^[15]

Smuts and Botha were key negotiators at the Paris Peace Conference. Both were in favour of reconciliation with Germany and limited reparations. Smuts advocated a powerful League of Nations, which failed to materialise. The Treaty of Versailles gave South Africa a Class C mandate over German South West Africa (which later became Namibia), which was occupied from 1919 until withdrawal in 1990. At the same time, Australia was given a similar mandate over German New Guinea, which it held until 1975. Both Smuts and the Australian Prime Minister Billy Hughes feared the rising power of Japan in the post First World War world. When former German East Africa was divided into three mandated territories (Rwanda, Burundi, and Tanganyika) Smutsland was one of the proposed names for what became Tanganyika. Smuts, who had called for South African territorial expansion all the way to the River Zambesi since the late 19th century, was ultimately disappointed with the League awarding South West Africa only a mandate status, as he had looked forward to formally incorporating the territory to South Africa.^[16]

Smuts returned to South African politics after the conference. When Botha died in 1919, Smuts was elected Prime Minister, serving until a shocking defeat in 1924 at the hands of the National Party. After the death of the former American President Woodrow Wilson, Smuts was quoted as saying that: "Not Wilson, but humanity failed at Paris."^[17]

While in Britain for an Imperial Conference in June 1920, Smuts went to Ireland and met Éamon de Valera to help broker an armistice and peace deal between the warring British and Irish nationalists. Smuts attempted to sell the concept of Ireland receiving Dominion status similar to that of Australia and South Africa.^[18]

As a botanist, Smuts collected plants extensively over southern Africa. He went on several botanical expeditions in the 1920s and 1930s with John Hutchinson, former Botanist in charge of the African section of the Herbarium of the Royal Botanic Gardens and taxonomist of note.

For most of the 1930s, Smuts was a leading supporter of appeasement. In December 1934, Smuts told an audience at the Royal Institute of International Affairs that:

"How can the inferiority complex which is obsessing and, I fear, poisoning the mind, and indeed the very soul of Germany, be removed? There is only one way and that is to recognise her complete equality of status with her fellows and to do so frankly, freely and unreservedly...While one understands and sympathises with French fears, one cannot, but feel for Germany in the prison of inferiority in which she still remains sixteen years after the conclusion of the war. The continuance of the Versailles status is becoming an offence to the conscience of Europe and a danger to future peace...Fair play, sportsmanship-indeed every standard of private and public life-calls for frank revision of the situation. Indeed ordinary prudence makes it imperative. Let us break these bonds and set the complexed-obsessed soul free in a decent human way and Europe will reap a rich reward in tranquility, security and returning prosperity."^[19]

Though in his Oct.17th 1934 Rectorial Address delivered at St Andrews University he states that:

"The new Tyranny, disguised in attractive patriotic colours, is enticing youth everywhere into its service. Freedom must make a great counterstroke to save itself and our fair western civilisation. Once more the heroic call is coming to our youth. The fight for human freedom is indeed the supreme issue of the future, as it has always been." ^[20]

Holism and related academic work[link]

While in academia, Smuts pioneered the concept of holism, defined as "the tendency in nature to form wholes that are greater than the sum of the parts through creative evolution" in his 1926 book, Holism and Evolution. Smuts' formulation of holism has been linked with his political-military activity and his belief in white supremacy^{[citation needed]}. One biographer said:^{[citation needed]}

It had very much in common with his philosophy of life as subsequently developed and embodied in his Holism and Evolution. Small units must needs develop into bigger wholes, and they in their turn again must grow into larger and ever-larger structures without cessation. Advancement lay along that path. Thus the unification of the four provinces in the Union of South Africa, the idea of the British Commonwealth of Nations, and, finally, the great whole resulting from the combination of the peoples of the earth in a great league of nations were but a logical progression consistent with his philosophical tenets.

Others, doctor and author Julian Tudor Hart, have considered Smuts' formulation of holism as "a soapy term which evades necessary conflict," which fitted with his belief in excluding the African majority from democracy.^[21]

After Einstein studied "Holism and Evolution" soon upon its publication, he wrote that two mental constructs will direct human thinking in the next millennium, his own mental construct of relativity and Smuts' of holism. In the work of Smuts he saw a clear blueprint of much of his own life, work and personality.^[22]

Smuts and segregation[link]

Although some people^[who?] have at times hailed him as a liberal,^{[Need quotation to verify]} Smuts is often depicted^[who?] as a white supremacist who played an important role in establishing and supporting a racially segregated society in South Africa.^{[citation needed]} He thought that it was "the duty of whites to deal justly with Africans," "raise them up in civilisation," and that they should not be given political power.^[23] Giving the right to vote to the black African majority he feared would imply the ultimate destruction of Western civilisation in South Africa.^{[24][dead link][Need quotation to verify]}

Smuts was for most of his political life a vocal supporter of segregation of the races, and in 1929 he justified the erection of separate institutions for blacks and whites in tones prescient of the later practice of apartheid:

In general, Smuts' view of Africans was patronising, he saw them as immature human beings that needed the guidance of whites, an attitude that reflected the common perceptions of most non-Africans in his lifetime. Of Africans he stated that:

He was not alone in these views. On 7 March 1908, Gandhi wrote in the Indian Opinion of his time in a South African prison: "Kaffirs are as a rule uncivilised—the convicts even more so. They are troublesome, very dirty and live almost like animals."^[26] On the subject of immigration in 1903, Gandhi commented in 1903: "We believe as much in the purity of race as we think they do... We believe also that the white race in South Africa should be the predominating race."^[27] Gandhi protested repeatedly about the social classification of blacks with Indians in South Africa and described Indians as "undoubtedly infinitely superior to the Kaffirs".^[28] Remarks such as these have led some to accuse Gandhi of racism.^[29] It is worth noting though that the word Kaffir had a different connotation in Gandhi's time than its current day meaning.^[30]

Although Gandhi and Smuts were adversaries in many ways, they had a mutual respect and even admiration for each other. Before Gandhi returned to India in 1914, he presented General Jan Smuts with a pair of sandals made by himself. In 1939, Smuts, then prime minister, wrote an essay for a commemorative work compiled for Gandhi’s 70th birthday and returned the sandals with the following message: "I have worn these sandals for many a summer, even though I may feel that I am not worthy to stand in the shoes of so great a man."^[31]

Smuts is often accused of being a politician who extolled the virtues of humanitarianism and liberalism abroad while failing to practice what he preached at home in South Africa. This was most clearly illustrated when India, in 1946, made a formal complaint in the UN concerning the legalised racial discrimination against Indians in South Africa. Appearing personally before the United Nations General Assembly, Smuts defended the policies of his government by fervently pleading that India's complaint was a matter of domestic jurisdiction. However, the General Assembly censured South Africa for its racial policies ^[4] and called upon the Smuts government to bring its treatment of the South African Indians in conformity with the basic principles of the United Nations Charter.^[4][32]

At the same conference, the African National Congress President General Alfred Bitini Xuma along with delegates of the South African Indian Congress brought up the issue of the brutality of Smuts' police regime against the African Mine Workers' Strike earlier that year as well as the wider struggle for equality in South Africa.^{[33][dead link]}

The international criticism of racial discrimination^{[citation needed]} in South Africa led Smuts to modify his rhetoric around segregation. In a bid to make South African racial policies sound more acceptable to Britain he declared already in 1942 that "segregation had failed to solve the Native problem of Africa and that the concept of trusteeship offered the only prospect of happy relations between European and African".

In 1948 he went further away from his previous views on segregation when supporting the recommendations of the Fagan Commission that Africans should be recognised as permanent residents of White South Africa and not only temporary workers that really belonged in the reserves.^[23] This was in direct opposition to the policies of the National Party that wished to extend segregation and formalise it into apartheid.

There is however no evidence that Smuts ever supported the idea of equal political rights for blacks and whites. The Fagan Commission did not advocate the establishment of a non-racial democracy in South Africa, but rather wanted to liberalise influx controls of Africans into urban areas in order to facilitate the supply of African labour to the South African industry. It also envisaged a relaxation of the pass laws that had restricted the movement of Africans in general.^[34] The commission was at the same time unequivocal about the continuation of white political privilege, it stated that "In South Africa, we the White men, cannot leave and cannot accept the fate of a subject race".

Second World War[link]

Smuts, standing left, at the 1944 Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conference.

Smuts in his Field Marshal's Uniform

After nine years in opposition and academia, Smuts returned as Deputy Prime Minister in a 'grand coalition' government under J. B. M. Hertzog. When Hertzog advocated neutrality towards Nazi Germany in 1939, he was deposed by a party caucus, and Smuts became Prime Minister for the second time. He had served with Winston Churchill in World War I, and had developed a personal and professional rapport. Smuts was invited to the Imperial War Cabinet in 1939 as the most senior South African in favour of war. On 28 May 1941 Smuts was appointed a field marshal of the British Army, becoming the first South African to hold that rank.

Smuts' importance to the Imperial war effort was emphasised by a quite audacious plan, proposed as early as 1940, to appoint Smuts as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, should Churchill die or otherwise become incapacitated during the war. This idea was put by Sir John Colville, Churchill's private secretary, to Queen Mary and then to George VI, both of whom warmed to the idea.^[35] As Churchill lived for another twenty-five years, the plan was never put into effect and its constitutionality was never tested. This closeness to the British establishment, to the King, and to Churchill made Smuts very unpopular amongst the Afrikaners, leading to his eventual downfall.

In May 1945, he represented South Africa in San Francisco at the drafting of the United Nations Charter. Just as he did in 1919, Smuts urged the delegates to create a powerful international body to preserve peace; he was determined that, unlike the League of Nations, the UN would have teeth. Smuts signed the Paris Peace Treaty, resolving the peace in Europe, thus becoming the solitary person who was a signatory of the treaties ending both the First and Second World Wars.

In 1945, he was mentioned by Halvdan Koht among seven candidates that were qualified for the Nobel Prize in Peace. However, he did not explicitly nominate any of them. The person actually nominated was Cordell Hull.^[36]

After the war[link]

Jan Smuts Museum, Irene, Pretoria

Smuts continued to represent his country abroad. He was a leading guest at the 1947 wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. ^[37] At home, his preoccupation with the war had severe political repercussions in South Africa. Smuts's support of the war and his support for the Fagan Commission made him unpopular amongst the Afrikaners and Daniel François Malan's pro-Apartheid stance won the Reunited National Party the 1948 general election. Although this result was widely forecast, it is a credit to Smuts's political acumen that he was only narrowly defeated by eight seats (and, in fact, won the popular vote by 620,682 votes to 462,332). Smuts, who had been confident of victory, lost his own seat in the House of Assembly and retired from politics. He still hoped that the tenuous National Party government would fall; but it was to remain in power until 1994, when after nearly five decades of Apartheid, a transitional government of national unity was formed.

The car Jan Smuts used when he was the Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa. Jan Smuts Museum, Irene, Pretoria

He accepted the appointment as Colonel-In-Chief of Regiment Westelike Provinsie as from 17 September 1948.^[38]

It is widely believed in Lesotho that the British attempted to bolster Smuts against Malan's PNP by breaking the power of the Basutoland chieftaincy and allowing the protectorate to be incorporated into South Africa. Two dominant chiefs, Bereng Griffith (twice presumptive heir to the throne) and Gabashane were hanged in controversial circumstances for ritual murder (liretlo) but this occurred after Smuts' election defeat.^{[citation needed]}

Smuts's inauguration as chancellor of the University of Cambridge shortly after the election restored his morale, but the sudden and unexpected death of his eldest son, Japie, in October 1948 brought him to the depths of despair. In the last two years of his life, now frail and visibly aged, Smuts continued to comment perceptively, and on occasion presciently, on world affairs. Europe and the Commonwealth remained his dominant concerns. He regretted the departure of the Irish republic from the Commonwealth, but was unhappy when India remained within it after it became a republic, fearing the example this would set South Africa's Nationalists. His outstanding contributions as a world statesman were acknowledged in innumerable honours and medals. At home his reputation was more mixed. Nevertheless, despite ill health he continued his public commitments.

On 29 May 1950, a week after the public celebration of his eightieth birthday in Johannesburg and Pretoria, he suffered a coronary thrombosis. He died of a subsequent heart attack on his family farm of Doornkloof, Irene, near Pretoria, on 11 September 1950, and was cremated in Pretoria on 16 September. His ashes were scattered in the veld on his farm Doornkloof.

Statue in Parliament Square, London, by Jacob Epstein

Support for Zionism[link]

South African supporters of Theodor Herzl contacted Smuts in 1916. Smuts, who supported the Balfour Declaration, met and became friends with Chaim Weizmann, the future President of Israel, in London. In 1943 Weizmann wrote to Smuts, detailing a plan to develop Britain's African colonies to compete with the United States. During his service as Premier, Smuts personally fundraised for multiple Zionist organisations.^[39] His government granted de facto recognition to Israel on 24 May 1948 and de jure recognition on 14 May 1949 following the defeat of Smuts' United Party by the Reunited National Party in the 26 May 1948 General Election, 12 days after David Ben Gurion declared Jewish Statehood and giving the newly formed nation the name Israel.^[40] However, Smuts was deputy prime minister when the Hertzog government in 1937 passed the Aliens Act that was aimed at preventing Jewish immigration to South Africa. The act was seen as a response to growing anti-Semitic sentiments among Afrikaners.^[41]

He lobbied against the White Paper of 1939.^[42]

Several streets and a kibbutz, Ramat Yohanan, in Israel are named after Smuts.^[40]

Smuts' wrote an epitaph for Weizmann, describing him as the greatest Jew since Moses."^[43]

Smuts once said:

Other offices held[link]

In 1931, Smuts became the first President of the British Association for the Advancement of Science not from the United Kingdom. In that year, he was also elected the second non-British Lord Rector of St Andrews University (after Fridtjof Nansen). In 1948, he was elected Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, becoming the first person from outside the United Kingdom to hold that position. He held the position until his death.

Jan Smuts in popular culture[link]

The Libertines recorded a song titled General Smuts in reference to a pub named after him located in Bloemfontein Road, Shepherds Bush, London, close to QPR football club. It appeared as a B-side to their single Time for Heroes.

Smuts is played by South African playwright Athol Fugard in the 1982 film Gandhi.

Wilbur Smith refers to and portrays Jan Smuts in several of his South Africa based novels including When the Lion Feeds, The Sound of Thunder, A Sparrow Falls, Power of the Sword and Rage. Smuts is often referred to as "Slim (Clever) Jannie" or Oubaas (Old Boss) as well as by his proper names.

Place names[link]

The international airport serving Johannesburg was known as Jan Smuts Airport from its construction in 1952 until 1994. In 1994, it was renamed to Johannesburg International Airport to remove any political connotations. In 2006, it was renamed again to its current name, OR Tambo International Airport, for the ANC politician Oliver Tambo.

Residences at the University of Cape Town and at Rhodes University are named after him, as is a library housing international law materials at the University of the Witwatersrand.

In 1932, the kibbutz Ramat Yohanan in Israel was named after him. Smuts was a vocal proponent of the creation of a Jewish state, and spoke out against the rising anti-Semitism of the 1930s.^[45]

Honours[link]

Medals, Commonwealth and South African Order of Merit Order of the Companions of Honour Dekoratie voor Trouwe Dienst Efficiency Decoration Queen's South Africa Medal 1914–15 Star British War Medal Victory Medal General Service Medal King George V Silver Jubilee Medal King George VI Coronation Medal Africa Star Italy Star France and Germany Star Defence Medal France and Germany Star War Medal 1939–1945 Africa Service Medal International and Foreign Awards European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, (United States of America) 60px Order of the Tower and Sword, Grand Cross (Portugal) Order of the Netherlands Lion, Knight Grand Cross (Netherlands) 60px Order of Muhammad Ali, Grand Cordon (Egypt) Order of the Redeemer, Grand Cross (Greece) Order of Léopold, Grand Cross (Belgium) Croix de guerre (Belgium), (Belgium) Légion d'honneur, Commander (France) Order of the African Star, Grand Cross (Belgium) 60px King Christian X Frihedsmedaille (Denmark) Cross of Valour, (Greece) 60px Woodrow Wilson Peace Medal (United States of America) Other awards and decorations[link] Privy Counsellor King's Counsel Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) Bencher of the Middle Temple Albert Medal See also[link] Military history of South Africa When Smuts Goes History of Kenya – Colonial History History of Tanzania – First World War Footnotes[link] ^ Root, Waverley (1952). "Jan Christiaan Smuts. 1870-1950". Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society 8 (21): 271–226. DOI:10.1098/rsbm.1952.0017. JSTOR 768812.  edit ^ Encyclopædia Britannica (11 September 1950). "Prime Minister Lloyd George at once recognized his abilities and made him minister of air. From then on he was used in a variety of tasks. He organized the Royal Air Force and was concerned in all major decisions about the war.". Britannica.com. http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-6721/Jan-Smuts. Retrieved 1 May 2010.  ^ Crafford p. 141 ^ a b c "United Nations General Assembly Resolution A/RES/44(I)". United Nations General Assembly. 8 December 1946. http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/RESOLUTION/GEN/NR0/032/95/IMG/NR003295.pdf?OpenElement. Retrieved 7 June 2011.  ^ http://152.111.1.87/argief/berigte/dieburger/2004/09/27/DB/3LDNk/04.html ^ Venn, J.; Venn, J. A., eds. (1922–1958). "Smuts, Jan Christian". Alumni Cantabrigienses (10 vols) (online ed.). Cambridge University Press.  ^ Letter from Marais to Smuts, 8 Aug 1892; Hancock et al. (1966–73): vol. 1, p. 25 ^ Jan C Smuts: Walt Whitman - a Study in the Evolution of Personality, Wayne State University Press 1973 ^ Smuts (1952), p. 23 ^ Letter from Maitland to Smuts, 15 June 1894; Hancock et al. (1966–73): vol. 1, pp. 33–34 ^ Jan Smuts – Memoirs of the Boer War (1994) Introduction, p. 19 ^ Smuts (1952), p. 24 ^ Norman Kemp Smith. A Commentary to Kant's Critique of Pure Reason.  ^ Williams, Basil (1946). Botha Smuts And South Africa. Hodder And Stoughton. pp. 52–53. http://www.archive.org/details/bothasmutsandsou035110mbp. Retrieved 14 October 2010.  ^ Byron Farwell (1999). Over There: The United States in the Great War, 1917-1918.  ^ Dugard, John (1973). The South West Africa/Namibia Dispute: Documents and Scholarly Writings on the Controversy Between South Africa and The United Nations. University of California Press. p. 38. ISBN 0-520-02614-4.  ^ Howe, Quincy, A World History of Our Own Times, 1949, page 74 ^ J.C. Smuts, J. C. Smuts, 1952, p. 252 ^ Kee, Robert Munich, Hamish Hamilton: London, United Kingdom, 1988 page 54. ^ Smuts, J.C. 'Freedom', Alexander Maclehose & Co, London, UK, 1934 page 28-29. ^ Julian Tudor Hart (2010) The Political Economy of Health Care, pp.106, 258 quotation: Complex problems of this sort, which account for most of the work of primary care, [...] have to depend on clinical and social jusdgements (sic). [...] The conventional way to refer to more comprehensive and intuitive judgements is to describe such approaches as holistic. It has become extremely popular among liberally inclined healthcare workers of all kinds, but I have not found it useful. The central idea of holism is that any evolved whole is greater than the sum of his parts, and that no single thing can be fully understood in isolation from its extended context. Though this is obviously true, it does nothing to get us beyond banal observation. [...] Known in South Africa as Janni (sic) the fox, Smuts managed in a single like to combine three large reputations - as a leader of the Boers' guerrilla resistence (sic) to the English, as senior statesman and recurrent Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa and champion of the British Empire, and as a philosopher. To achieve this on the basis of white supremacy in a country where people of African descent, a supremacy he never questioned, required a philosophy fitted for contemplation of reality rather than struggle to change it. So it has been for holism, a soapy term which evades necessary conflict. ^ Letter from Einstein to Smuts, 24 June 1936, Vol 54, Folio 33, Cambridge University Library ^ a b "Jan Christiaan Smuts , South African History Online". Sahistory.org.za. http://www.sahistory.org.za/pages/people/bios/smuts-j.htm. Retrieved 1 May 2010.  ^ [1][dead link] ^ a b "Journal of Heredity – Sign In Page". Jhered.oxfordjournals.org. http://www.jhered.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/21/5/225.pdf. Retrieved 1 May 2010.  ^ The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi. 8. p. 199.  ^ The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi. 3. p. 255.  ^ The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi. 2. p. 270.  ^ Rory Carroll, "Gandhi branded racist as Johannesburg honours freedom fighter", The Guardian, 17 October 2003. ^ "Kaffirs". Encyclopædia Britannica. 15. 1911. pp. 627–629.  ^ "Following the footsteps of a great man". Sunday Times. http://heritage.thetimes.co.za/memorials/gp/MohandasGandhi/article.aspx?id=565973. Retrieved 30 April 2006.  ^ "Unverified article attributed to the Delhi News Chronicle". South African Communist Party. 25 September 1949. http://www.sacp.org.za/docs/history/dadoo-38.html. Retrieved 1 May 2010.  ^ R.E.Press. "THE AFRICAN MINERS` STRIKE OF 1946". Anc.org.za. http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/history/misc/miners.html. Retrieved 1 May 2010. [dead link] ^ "Fagan Commission and Report". Africanhistory.about.com. 26 May 1948. http://africanhistory.about.com/od/apartheidterms/g/def_Fagan.htm. Retrieved 1 May 2010.  ^ Colville, Sir John: The Fringes of Power, pages 269–271 (ISBN 1-84212-626-1) ^ "Record from The Nomination Database for the Nobel Prize in Peace, 1901–1956". Nobel Foundation. http://nobelprize.org/nomination/peace/nomination.php?action=show&showid=3322. Retrieved 14 May 2010. [dead link] ^ Royal Collection: Seating plan for the Ball Supper Room http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/microsites/royalwedding1947/object.asp?grouping=&exhibs=NONE&object=9000366&row=82&detail=magnify ^ Union Defence Force Order No.4114. 5 July 1949 ^ Jane Hunter and Jane Haapiseva-Hunter. Israeli Foreign Policy: South Africa and Central America, 1987. Pages 21–22. ^ a b Beit-Hallahmi, Benjamin. The Israeli Connection: Whom Israel Arms and Why, 1988. Page 109-111. ^ "South Africa – The Great Depression and the 1930s". Countrystudies.us. http://countrystudies.us/south-africa/22.htm. Retrieved 1 May 2010.  ^ Howard Stafford Crossman, Richard. A Nation Reborn: A Personal Report on the Roles Played by Weizmann, Bevin and Ben-Gurion in the story of Israel, 1960. Page 76. ^ Lockyer, Norman. Nature, digitized 5 February 2007. Nature Publishing Group. ^ S. Klieman, Aaron. The Rise of Israel, 1987. Page 16. ^ "Jewish American Year Book 5695" (PDF). Jewish Publication Society of America. 1934. http://www.ajcarchives.org/AJC_DATA/Files/Vol_36__1934_1935.pdf. Retrieved 12 August 2006. . Tel Aviv and several other Israeli cities have a Jan Smuts Street. Bibliography[link] Primary sources[link] Smuts, J.C. (1940). The Folly of Neutrality - Speech by the prime Minister, General the Rt. Hon. J.C.Smuts, P.C., C.H., K.C., D.T.D., in The Senate of the Union Parliament at Cape Town on January 30, 1940. Union Unity Truth Service. http://www.archive.org/details/TheFollyOfNeutralitywwIi.  Hancock, WK and van der Poel, J (eds) – Selections from the Smuts Papers, 1886–1950, (7 vols), (1966–73) Spies, SB and Natrass, G (eds) – Jan Smuts – Memoirs of the Boer War Jonathan Ball, Johannesburg 1994 Crowe, BGen J.H.V. -General Smuts' Campaign in East Africa, (1918) Secondary sources[link] Armstrong, HC – Grey Steel: A Study of Arrogance, (1939), ASIN B00087SNP4) Clark, NL – South Africa: The Rise and Fall of Apartheid, (2004), (ISBN 0 582 41437 7) Crafford, FS – Jan Smuts: A Biography, (1943), ISBN 1-4179-9290-5 Friedman, B – Smuts: A Reappraisal, (1975) Geyser, O – Jan Smuts and His International Contemporaries, (2002), (ISBN 1-919874-10-0) Hancock, WK – Smuts: 1. The Sanguine Years, 1870—1919, (1962) Hancock, WK – Smuts: 2. Fields of Force, 1919–1950, (1968) Hutchinson, John – A Botanist in Southern Africa, (1946), PR Gawthorn Ltd. Ingham, K – Jan Christian Smuts: The Conscience of a South African, (1986) Lentin, Antony – General Smuts: South Africa, London, Haus, (2010). ISBN 978-1-905791-82-8 Millin, SG – General Smuts, (2 vols), (1933) Reitz, D – Commando: A Boer Journal of the Boer War, (ISBN 0-9627613-3-8) Smuts, JC – Jan Christian Smuts, (1952), e-book (ISBN 978-1-920091-29-3) External links[link] Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Jan Smuts Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Jan Smuts "Revisiting Urban African Policy and the Reforms of the Smuts Government, 1939–48", by Gary Baines Africa And Some World Problems by Jan Smuts at archive.org Holism And Evolution by Jan Smuts The White man's task by Jan Smuts Political offices Preceded by New office Minister for the Interior 1910–1912 Succeeded by Abraham Fischer Preceded by New office Minister for Defence (first time) 1910–1920 Succeeded by Hendrik Mentz Preceded by Henry Charles Hull Minister for Finance 1912–1915 Succeeded by Sir David Pieter de Villiers Graaff Preceded by Louis Botha Prime Minister (first time) 1919–1924 Succeeded by James Barry Munnik Hertzog Preceded by Oswald Pirow Minister for Justice 1933–1939 Succeeded by Colin Fraser Steyn Preceded by James Barry Munnik Hertzog Prime Minister (second time) 1939–1948 Succeeded by Daniel François Malan Preceded by Oswald Pirow Minister for Defence (second time) 1939–1948 Succeeded by Frans Erasmus Preceded by James Barry Munnik Hertzog Minister for Foreign Affairs 1939–1948 Succeeded by Daniel François Malan Party political offices Preceded by Louis Botha Leader of the South African Party 1919–1934 SAP Merged into United Party Preceded by James Barry Munnik Hertzog Leader of the United Party 1939–1950 Succeeded by Jacobus Gideon Nel Strauss Academic offices Preceded by Sir Wilfred Grenfell Rector of the University of St Andrews 1931–1934 Succeeded by Guglielmo Marconi Preceded by The Prince of Wales later became King Edward VIII Chancellor of the University of Cape Town 1936–1950 Succeeded by Albert van der Sandt Centlivres Preceded by Stanley Baldwin Chancellor of the University of Cambridge 1948–1950 Succeeded by The Lord Tedder v t e Jan Smuts I: Early life II: The South African Republic III: The Boer War IV: A British Transvaal V: The Old Boers v t e Prime Ministers of South Africa Louis Botha · Jan Christiaan Smuts · James Barry Munnik Hertzog · Jan Christiaan Smuts · Daniel François Malan · Johannes Gerhardus Strijdom · Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd · Balthazar Johannes Vorster · Pieter Willem Botha Governor-General of the Union of South Africa · State President of South Africa v t e Leaders of the (Parliamentary) Opposition in South Africa Jameson Smartt Hertzog Smuts vacant (1933-1934) Malan Hertzog Malan Smuts Strauss Graaff Cadman Eglin Slabbert Eglin Treurnicht Hartzenberg vacant (1994–1996) de Klerk Schalkwyk Leon Botha Trollip Mazibuko v t e Justice ministers of South Africa pre-Apartheid (1910-1948) Hertzog • Sauer • de Wet • Roos • Pirow • Smuts • Steyn • Lawrence Apartheid-era (1948-1994) Swart • Erasmus • Vorster • Pelser • Kruger • Schlebusch • Coetsee Post-Apartheid (1994-present) Omar • Maduna • Mabandla • Surty • Radebe v t e Defence ministers of South Africa Pre-Apartheid (1910-1948) Smuts • Mentz • Creswell • Pirow • Smuts (as Prime Minister) Apartheid-era (1948-1994) Erasmus • Fouché • Botha • Malan • Meyer • Louw • Coetsee Post-Apartheid (1994-present) Modise • Lekota • Nqakula • Sisulu v t e Foreign ministers of South Africa pre-Apartheid (1910–1948) Hertzog • Smuts Apartheid-era (1948–1994) Malan • Strijdom • Louw • Muller • Botha Post-Apartheid (1994–present) Nzo • Dlamini-Zuma • Nkoana-Mashabane Note: Until the appointment of Louw in 1955 the Prime Minister was also foreign minister. v t e Home affairs ministers of South Africa pre-Apartheid (1910-1948) Smuts • Fischer • Theron • Watt • Duncan • Malan • Hofmeyr • Stuttaford • Lawrence • Clarkson • Lawrence Apartheid-era (1948-1994) Dönges • Naudé • de Klerk • Le Roux • Muller • Viljoen • Gerdener • Mulder • Schlebusch • Heunis • de Klerk • Botha • Louw • Pienaar • Schutte Post-Apartheid (1994-present) Buthelezi • Mapisa-Nqakula • Dlamini-Zuma v t e Finance ministers of South Africa pre-Apartheid (1910-1948) Hull • Smuts • Graaff • Burton • Orr • Burton • Havenga • Hofmeyr • Sturrock Apartheid-era (1948-1994) Havenga • Louw • Naudé • Dönges • Diederichs • Horwood • Du Plessis • Keys Post-Apartheid (1994-present) Keys • Liebenberg • Manuel • Gordhan Persondata Name Smuts, Jan Christian Alternative names Short description Date of birth 24 May 1870 Place of birth Bovenplaats, near Malmesbury, Western Cape, Cape Colony Date of death 11 September 1950 Place of death Doornkloof, Irene, Gauteng, near Pretoria, South Africa

Freddie Mercury
Mercury performing in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1978 with Queen
Background information
Birth name	Farrokh Bulsara
Born	(1946-09-05)5 September 1946 Stone Town, Zanzibar
Origin	London, England, UK[1]
Died	24 November 1991(1991-11-24) (aged 45) Kensington, London, England, United Kingdom
Genres	Rock, hard rock, glam rock
Occupations	Musician, singer-songwriter, record producer
Instruments	Multi-instrumentalist Vocals, piano, keyboards, guitar
Years active	1969–1991
Labels	Columbia, Polydor, EMI, Parlophone, Hollywood Records
Associated acts	Queen, Wreckage/Ibex, Montserrat Caballé Freddie Mercury's Signature

Freddie Mercury (born Farrokh Bulsara (Gujarati: ફારોખ બલ્સારા‌), 5 September 1946 – 24 November 1991)^[2][3] was a British musician, singer and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist and lyricist of the rock band Queen. As a performer, he was known for his flamboyant stage persona and powerful vocals over a four-octave range.^[4][5][6] As a songwriter, Mercury composed many hits for Queen, including "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Killer Queen", "Somebody to Love", "Don't Stop Me Now", "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" and "We Are the Champions". In addition to his work with Queen, he led a solo career, and also occasionally served as a producer and guest musician (piano or vocals) for other artists. He died of bronchopneumonia brought on by AIDS on 24 November 1991, only one day after publicly acknowledging he had the disease.

Mercury was a Parsi born in Zanzibar and grew up there and in India until his mid-teens. He has been referred to as "Britain's first Asian rock star".^[7] In 2002, Mercury was placed at number 58 in the BBC's poll of the 100 Greatest Britons, in 2006, Time Asia named him one of the most influential Asian heroes of the past 60 years,^[8] and he continues to be voted one of the greatest singers in the history of popular music. In 2005, a poll organised by Blender and MTV2 saw Mercury voted the greatest male singer of all time.^[9] In 2008, Rolling Stone editors ranked him number 18 on their list of the 100 greatest singers of all time.^[6] In 2009, a Classic Rock poll saw him voted the greatest rock singer of all time.^[10] Allmusic has characterised Mercury as "one of rock's greatest all-time entertainers", who possessed "one of the greatest voices in all of music".^[11]

Early life[link]

Mercury was born in the British protectorate of Zanzibar, East Africa (now part of Tanzania). His parents, Bomi and Jer Bulsara,^[a] were Parsis from the Gujarat region of the then province of Bombay Presidency in British India.^[12][b] The family surname is derived from the town of Bulsar (also known as Valsad) in southern Gujarat. As Parsis, Mercury and his family practised the Zoroastrian religion.^[13] The Bulsara family had moved to Zanzibar so that his father could continue his job as a cashier at the British Colonial Office. He had a younger sister, Kashmira.^[14]

The house in Zanzibar where Mercury lived in his early years

Mercury spent the bulk of his childhood in India and began taking piano lessons at the age of seven.^[15] In 1954, at the age of eight, Mercury was sent to study at St. Peter's School, a British-style boarding school for boys in Panchgani near Bombay (now Mumbai), India.^[16] One of his formative musical influences at the time was Bollywood singer Lata Mangeshkar.^[17] Aged 12, he formed a school band, The Hectics, and covered rock and roll artists such as Cliff Richard and Little Richard.^[18] A friend from the time recalls that he had "an uncanny ability to listen to the radio and replay what he heard on piano".^[19] It was also at St. Peter's where he began to call himself "Freddie". Mercury remained in India, living with his grandmother and aunt until he completed his education at St. Mary's School, Bombay.^[20]

At the age of 17, Mercury and his family fled from Zanzibar for safety reasons due to the 1964 Zanzibar Revolution,^[7] in which thousands of Arabs and Indians were killed.^[21] The family moved into a small house in Feltham, Middlesex, England. Mercury enrolled at Isleworth Polytechnic (now West Thames College) in West London where he studied art. He ultimately earned a Diploma in Art and Graphic Design at Ealing Art College, later using these skills to design the Queen crest. Mercury remained a British citizen for the rest of his life.

Following graduation, Mercury joined a series of bands and sold second-hand clothes in the Kensington Market in London. He also held a job at Heathrow Airport. Friends from the time remember him as a quiet and shy young man who showed a great deal of interest in music.^[22] In 1969 he joined the band Ibex, later renamed Wreckage. When this band failed to take off, he joined a second band called Sour Milk Sea. However, by early 1970 this group broke up as well.^[23]

In April 1970, Mercury joined guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor who had previously been in a band called Smile. Despite reservations from the other members, Mercury chose the name "Queen" for the new band. He later said about the band's name, "I was certainly aware of the gay connotations, but that was just one facet of it".^[1] At about the same time, he changed his surname, Bulsara, to Mercury.^[24]

Career[link]

Singer[link]

Freddie Mercury in 1978

Freddie Mercury's vocal range

Although Mercury's speaking voice naturally fell in the baritone range, he delivered most songs in the tenor range.^[25] His vocal range extended from an F (F2) to an F (F6).^[26] He could belt up to a high F (F5).^[26] Biographer David Bret described his voice as "escalating within a few bars from a deep, throaty rock-growl to tender, vibrant tenor, then on to a high-pitched, perfect coloratura, pure and crystalline in the upper reaches".^[27] Spanish soprano Montserrat Caballé, with whom Mercury recorded an album, expressed her opinion that "the difference between Freddie and almost all the other rock stars was that he was selling the voice".^[28] She adds, "His technique was astonishing. No problem of tempo, he sung with an incisive sense of rhythm, his vocal placement was very good and he was able to glide effortlessly from a register to another. He also had a great musicality. His phrasing was subtle, delicate and sweet or energetic and slamming. He was able to find the right colouring or expressive nuance for each word."^[26] As Queen's career progressed, he would increasingly alter the highest notes of their songs when live, often harmonising with seconds, thirds or fifths instead. Mercury was said to have "the rawest vocal fold nodules" and claimed never to have had any formal vocal training.^[29]

Songwriter[link]

Mercury wrote 10 of the 17 songs on Queen's Greatest Hits album: "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Seven Seas of Rhye", "Killer Queen", "Somebody to Love", "Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy", "We Are the Champions", "Bicycle Race", "Don't Stop Me Now", "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" and "Play the Game".^[30]

The most notable aspect of his songwriting involved the wide range of genres that he used, which included, among other styles, rockabilly, progressive rock, heavy metal, gospel and disco. As he explained in a 1986 interview, "I hate doing the same thing again and again and again. I like to see what's happening now in music, film and theatre and incorporate all of those things."^[31] Compared to many popular songwriters, Mercury also tended to write musically complex material. For example, "Bohemian Rhapsody" is acyclic in structure and comprises dozens of chords.^[32][33] He also wrote six songs from Queen II which deal with multiple key changes and complex material. "Crazy Little Thing Called Love", on the other hand, contains only a few chords. Despite the fact that Mercury often wrote very intricate harmonies, he also claimed that he could barely read music.^[34] He wrote most of his songs on the piano and used a wide variety of different key signatures.^[32]

Live performer[link]

Mercury, performing live in 1979, with his bottomless microphone stand

Mercury performing live in 1984

Mercury was noted for his live performances, which were often delivered to stadium audiences around the world. He displayed a highly theatrical style that often evoked a great deal of participation from the crowd. A writer for The Spectator described him as "a performer out to tease, shock and ultimately charm his audience with various extravagant versions of himself".^[35] David Bowie, who performed at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert and recorded the song "Under Pressure" with Queen, praised Mercury's performance style, saying: "Of all the more theatrical rock performers, Freddie took it further than the rest... he took it over the edge. And of course, I always admired a man who wears tights. I only saw him in concert once and as they say, he was definitely a man who could hold an audience in the palm of his hand."^[36] Queen guitarist Brian May wrote that Mercury could make "the last person at the back of the furthest stand in a stadium feel that he was connected."^[37]

One of Mercury's most notable performances with Queen took place at Live Aid in 1985, during which the entire stadium audience of 72,000 people clapped, sang and swayed in unison. Queen's performance at the event has since been voted by a group of music executives as the greatest live performance in the history of rock music. The results were aired on a television program called "The World's Greatest Gigs".^[38][39] In reviewing Live Aid in 2005, one critic wrote, "Those who compile lists of Great Rock Frontmen and award the top spots to Mick Jagger, Robert Plant, etc all are guilty of a terrible oversight. Freddie, as evidenced by his Dionysian Live Aid performance, was easily the most godlike of them all."^[40]

Over the course of his career, Mercury performed an estimated 700 concerts in countries around the world with Queen. A notable aspect of Queen concerts was the large scale involved.^[31] He once explained, "We're the Cecil B. DeMille of rock and roll, always wanting to do things bigger and better."^[31] The band was the first ever to play in South American stadiums, breaking worldwide records for concert attendance in the Morumbi Stadium in São Paulo in 1981.^[41] In 1986, Queen also played behind the Iron Curtain when they performed to a crowd of 80,000 in Budapest, in what was one of the biggest rock concerts ever held in Eastern Europe.^[42] Mercury's final live performance with Queen took place on 9 August 1986 at Knebworth Park in England and drew an attendance estimated as high as 300,000.^[43]

Instrumentalist[link]

Freddie Mercury playing guitar during a live concert with Queen in Frankfurt, Germany, 1984.

As a young boy in India, Mercury received formal piano training up to the age of nine. Later on, while living in London, he learned guitar. Much of the music he liked was guitar-oriented: his favourite artists at the time were The Who, The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, David Bowie, and Led Zeppelin. He was often self-deprecating about his own skills on both instruments and from the early 1980s onward began extensively using guest keyboardists for both Queen and his solo career. Most notably, he enlisted Fred Mandel (a Canadian musician who also worked for Pink Floyd, Elton John and Supertramp) for his first solo project, and from 1985 onward collaborated with Mike Moran (in the studio) and Spike Edney (in concert), leaving most of the keyboard work exclusively to them.

Mercury played the piano in many of Queen's most popular songs, including "Killer Queen", "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy", "We Are the Champions", "Somebody To Love" and "Don't Stop Me Now". He used concert grand pianos and, occasionally, other keyboard instruments such as the harpsichord. From 1980 onward, he also made frequent use of synthesisers in the studio. Queen guitarist Brian May claims that Mercury was unimpressed with his own abilities at the piano and used the instrument less over time because he wanted to walk around onstage and entertain the audience.^[44] Although he wrote many lines for the guitar, Mercury possessed only rudimentary skills on the instrument. Songs like "Ogre Battle" and "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" were composed on the guitar; the latter featured Mercury playing acoustic guitar both on stage and in the studio.^[45]

Solo career[link]

In addition to his work with Queen, Mercury put out two solo albums and several singles. Although his solo work was not as commercially successful as most Queen albums, the two off-Queen albums and several of the singles debuted in the top 10 of the UK Album Charts. His first solo effort involved his contribution to the Richard "Wolfie" Wolf mix of Love Kills on the 1984 album (the song also used as the end title theme for National Lampoon's "Loaded Weapon") and new soundtrack to the 1926 Fritz Lang film Metropolis. The song, produced by Giorgio Moroder, debuted at the number 10 position in the UK charts.^[46]

Mercury's two full albums outside the band were Mr. Bad Guy (1985) and Barcelona (1988). The former is a pop-oriented album that emphasises disco and dance music. "Barcelona" was recorded and performed with the opera singer Montserrat Caballé, whom he had long admired. Mr. Bad Guy debuted in the top ten of the UK Album Charts.^[46] In 1993, a remix of "Living on My Own", a single from the album, reached the No.1 position on the UK Singles Charts.^[47] The song also garnered Mercury a posthumous Ivor Novello Award. Allmusic critic Eduardo Rivadavia describes Mr. Bad Guy as "outstanding from start to finish" and expressed his view that Mercury "did a commendable job of stretching into uncharted territory".^[48] In particular, the album is heavily synthesiser-driven in a way that is not characteristic of previous Queen albums.

Barcelona, recorded with Spanish soprano Montserrat Caballé, combines elements of popular music and opera. Many critics were uncertain what to make of the album; one referred to it as "the most bizarre CD of the year".^[49] The album was a commercial success,^[50] and the album's title track debuted at the No.8 position in the UK charts and was a hit in Spain.^[51] The title track received massive air play as the official hymn of the 1992 Summer Olympics (held in Barcelona one year after Mercury's death). Caballé sang it live at the opening of the Olympics with Mercury's part played on a screen, and again prior to the start of the 1999 UEFA Champions League Final in Barcelona.^[52]

In addition to the two solo albums, Mercury released several singles, including his own version of the hit The Great Pretender by The Platters, which debuted at number five in the UK in 1987.^[46] In September 2006, a compilation album featuring Mercury's solo work was released in the UK in honour of what would have been his 60th birthday. The album debuted in the top 10 of the UK Album Charts.^[53]

In 1981–1983, Mercury recorded several tracks with Michael Jackson, including a demo of "State of Shock", "Victory" and "There Must Be More to Life Than This".^[54] None of these collaborations were officially released, although bootleg recordings exist. Jackson went on to record the single "State of Shock" with Mick Jagger for The Jacksons's album Victory.^[55] Mercury included the solo version of "There Must Be More To Life Than This" on his Mr. Bad Guy album.^[56] In November 2011, Brian May announced that a series of duets that Mercury recorded with Jackson are to be released in 2012.^[57][58]

Personal life[link]

Queen in New Haven, Connecticut, US in November 1978.

Relationships[link]

In the early 1970s Mercury had a long-term relationship with Mary Austin, whom he had met through guitarist Brian May. He lived with Austin for several years in West Kensington. By the mid-1970s, however, the singer had begun an affair with a male American record executive at Elektra Records, which ultimately resulted in the end of his relationship with Austin.^[59] Mercury and Austin nevertheless remained close friends through the years, with Mercury often referring to her as his only true friend. In a 1985 interview, Mercury said of Austin, "All my lovers asked me why they couldn't replace Mary [Austin], but it's simply impossible. The only friend I've got is Mary and I don't want anybody else. To me, she was my common-law wife. To me, it was a marriage. We believe in each other, that's enough for me."^[60] He also wrote several songs about Austin, the most notable of which is "Love of My Life". In his will, Mercury left his London home to Austin, rather than his then partner Jim Hutton, saying, "You would have been my wife and it would have been yours anyway".^[61] Mercury was also the godfather of Mary's oldest son, Richard.^[44]

During the early to mid 80s, he was romantically involved with Barbara Valentin, an Austrian actress,^[62] who is featured in the video for "It's a Hard Life".^[63] By 1985, he began another long-term relationship with a hairdresser named Jim Hutton. Hutton, who himself was tested HIV-positive in 1990,^[64] lived with Mercury for the last six years of his life, nursed him during his illness, and was present at his bedside when he died. Hutton claimed that Mercury died wearing a wedding band that Hutton had given him.^[64] Hutton died from cancer on 1 January 2010.^[65]

Sexual orientation[link]

Mercury was an acknowledged bisexual.^[18][66][67] While some critics claimed he hid his sexual orientation from the public,^[7][28][68] others claimed he was "openly gay".^[8][69] In December 1974, when asked directly, "So how about being bent?" by the New Musical Express, Mercury replied, "You're a crafty cow. Let's put it this way; there were times when I was young and green. It's a thing schoolboys go through. I've had my share of schoolboy pranks. I'm not going to elaborate further." Homosexuality was legalised in the United Kingdom in 1967, only seven years earlier. In the 1980s, he would often distance himself from his partner, Jim Hutton, during public events.^[64]

In 1992, John Marshall of Gay Times expressed the following opinion: "[Mercury] was a 'scene-queen', not afraid to publicly express his gayness but unwilling to analyse or justify his 'lifestyle' ... It was as if Freddie Mercury was saying to the world, 'I am what I am. So what?' And that in itself for some was a statement."^[70] A writer for a gay online newspaper felt that audiences may have been overly naïve about the matter: "While in many respects he was overtly queer his whole career ("I am as gay as a daffodil, my dear" being one of his most famous quotes), his sexual orientation seemed to pass over the heads of scrutinising audiences and pundits (both gay and straight) for decades".^[71]

Personality[link]

Although he cultivated a flamboyant stage personality, Mercury was a very shy and retiring man in person, particularly around people he did not know well.^[19][28][72] He also granted very few interviews. Mercury once said of himself: "When I'm performing I'm an extrovert, yet inside I'm a completely different man."^[73] While on stage, Mercury basked in the love from the audience, which was famously noted by Kurt Cobain, in his suicide note, when he wrote of how he both admired and envied Mercury for being able to do so.^[74]

Criticism and controversy[link]

HIV[link]

Mercury did not disclose his HIV status to the public for several years, and it has been suggested that he could have made a contribution to AIDS awareness by speaking earlier about his situation and his fight against the disease.^[75][76]

Other controversies[link]

Queen were widely criticised when they broke a United Nations cultural boycott in 1984 by performing a series of shows at Sun City, an entertainment complex in Bophuthatswana, a homeland of (then) apartheid South Africa. As a result of these shows, Queen was placed on a United Nations list of artists who broke the boycott and was widely criticised in magazines such as the NME.^[40]

A further controversy ensued in August 2006, when an organisation calling itself the Islamic Mobilization and Propagation petitioned the Zanzibar government's culture ministry, demanding that a large-scale celebration of what would have been Mercury's sixtieth birthday be cancelled. The organisation issued several complaints about the planned celebrations, including that Mercury was not a true Zanzibari and that he was gay, which is not in accordance with their interpretation of sharia. The organisation claimed that "associating Mercury with Zanzibar degrades our island as a place of Islam".^[69] The planned celebration was cancelled.

Illness and death[link]

According to his partner Jim Hutton, Mercury was diagnosed with AIDS shortly after Easter of 1987.^[77] Around that time, Mercury claimed in an interview to have tested negative for HIV.^[28] Despite the denials, the British press pursued the rampant rumours over the next few years, fuelled by Mercury's increasingly gaunt appearance, Queen's absence from touring, and reports from former lovers to various tabloid journals – by 1990 the rumours about Mercury's health were rife.^[78] At the 1990 Brit Awards held at the Dominion Theatre, London on 18 February, Mercury made his final public appearance on stage when he joined the rest of Queen to collect the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music.^[79][80] Towards the end of his life, he was routinely stalked by photographers, while the daily tabloid newspaper The Sun featured a series of articles claiming that he was seriously ill; notably in an article from November 1990 which featured an image of a haggard looking Mercury on the front page accompanied by the headline "It's official – Freddie is seriously ill".^[81]

However, Mercury and his inner circle of colleagues and friends, whom he felt he could trust, continually denied the stories, even after one front page article published on 29 April 1991, which showed Mercury appearing very haggard in what was by then a rare public appearance.^[82] Brian May confirmed in a 1993 interview that Mercury had informed the band of his illness much earlier.^[83] Filmed in May 1991, the music video for "These Are the Days of Our Lives" features a painfully thin Mercury, which are his final scenes in front of the camera.^[84]

After the conclusion of his work with Queen in June 1991, Mercury retired to his home in Kensington. His former partner, Mary Austin, had been a particular comfort in his final years, and in the last few weeks of his life made regular visits to his home to look after him.^[85] Near the end of his life, Mercury was starting to lose his sight, and his deterioration was so overpowering he couldn't get out of bed.^[85] Due to his worsening condition, Mercury decided to hasten his death by refusing to take his medication, and just continued taking pain killers.^[85]