Memoirs of the Boer War

by Jan Christiaan Smuts

On the afternoon of Monday 4 June 1900, the young State Attorney of the South African Republic bade a sad farewell to his wife and child whom he was never to see again and left Pretoria to join the Boer commandos. He had braved shot and shell to put the government's sole source of finance for the continuing war - less than half a million pounds sterling in gold and coins - on a special train to President Kruger in the Eastern Transvaal. The next day, Lord Robert's army entered the capital. Jan Smuts came to play an important role in the South African war of 1899-1902. His memoirs are recorded here, and they present an account of the critical events from the fall of Pretoria to the reorganization of the commandos in December that year.

242 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1994

About the author

Field Marshal Jan Christia(a)n Smuts PC, OM, CH, DTD, ED, KC, FRS was a South African 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 emphasized the British Commonwealth’s positive role until his death in 1950

Reviews

[Monty Milne · Rating 4 out of 5]

My South African mother had a veneration for Smuts, whom she saw as the reconciler between Boer and Briton, and the man whose bravery in the Boer War was complemented by his political realism afterwards, and the wise advice he provided to Churchill in the Empire’s darkest hour.

Smuts was also a man of extraordinary intellectual gifts and this memoir is fluent and exciting. For one who became a loyal subject of the Empire, it is often extremely and enjoyably rude about some of the mad and bad British officers he fought against.

I have two reservations about this. First, it is frustratingly incomplete. And second, Smuts’s racism is difficult to avoid. Even by the standards of the time, it was egregious.