Jan Christiaan Smuts, OM, CH, ED, KC, FRS, 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 was a supporter of racial segregation based on separate territory for blacks and whites.He led the 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 War Cabinet. 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 both of the peace treaties ending the First and Second World Wars.
Not Wilson, but humanity failed at Paris. (commenting on both the death of Woodrow Wilson and his disappointment over the harsh terms in the Treaty of Versailles.)
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Having no human companion I felt a spirit of comradeship for the objects of nature around me. In my childish way I communed with these as with my own soul; they became the sharers of my confidence. (commenting on holism and evolution.)
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The intimate rapport with nature is one of the most precious things in life. Nature is indeed very close to us; sometimes closer than hands and feet, of which in truth she is but the extension. The emotional appeal of nature is tremendous, sometimes almost more than one can bear.
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If a nation does not want a monarchy, change the nation's mind. If a nation does not need a monarchy, change the nation's needs.
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The British Empire is the greatest stimulant of organized freedom which the world has ever known. By geography, by experience, by practical idealism, by political maturity, by character, the British have a part to play which no other race could do so well.
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Fact
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Spoke fluent English, Afrikaans, High Dutch, German and ancient Greek.
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Was a member of the Imperial War Cabinet during both World Wars. Smuts' importance to the war effort during World War II was such that the Sir John Colville, Prime Minister Winston Churchill's private secretary, proposed in 1940 that should Churchill die or become incapacitated before the war's conclusion, that Smuts be appointed as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Both King George VI and Mary the Queen Mother approved of the plan. Since Churchill lived for another twenty five years, the constitutionality of this unprecedented plan was never tested. It was this closeness to the British establishment, the King and Churchill that angered many Afrikaners in South Africa, who were still resentful over having been defeated by the British in the Second Boer War. This was a major factor in his defeat for re-election in 1948.
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He was commissioned as a Field Marshal in the British Army during both World War I and World War II. He was the first South African accorded such a rank in the British military.
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He is the only person to be a signatory to both the League of Nations charter and the United Nations charter. He also wrote the preamble to the United Nations charter.
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He is the only person to be a signatory to the peace treaties that ended both World War I and World War II.
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Smuts is portrayed in the film Gandhi (1982) by playwright Athol Fugard.
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Prime minister of South Africa (1919-1924, 1939-1948).
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